He repeated a good deal more of Macbeth. His recitation[359] was grand
and affecting, and as Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed to me, had no
more tone than it should have: it was the better for it. He then
parodied the _All-hail_ of the witches to Macbeth, addressing himself to
me. I had purchased some land called _Dalblair_; and, as in Scotland it
is customary to distinguish landed men by the name of their estates, I
had thus two titles, _Dalblair_ and Young _Auchinleck_. So my friend, in
imitation of

'All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!'

condescended to amuse himself with uttering

'All hail, Dalblair! hail to thee, Laird of Auchinleck[360]!'

We got to Fores[361] at night, and found an admirable inn, in which Dr.
Johnson was pleased to meet with a landlord who styled himself
'Wine-Cooper, from LONDON.'

FRIDAY, AUGUST 27.

It was dark when we came to Fores last night; so we did not see what is
called King Duncan's monument[362]. I shall now mark some gleanings of
Dr. Johnson's conversation. I spoke of _Leonidas_[363], and said there
were some good passages in it. JOHNSON. 'Why, you must _seek_ for them.'
He said, Paul Whitehead's _Manners_[364] was a poor performance.
Speaking of Derrick, he told me 'he had a kindness for him, and had
often said, that if his letters had been written by one of a more
established name, they would have been thought very pretty
letters[365].'

This morning I introduced the subject of the origin of evil[366].
JOHNSON. 'Moral evil is occasioned by free will, which implies choice
between good and evil. With all the evil that there is, there is no man
but would rather be a free agent, than a mere machine without the evil;
and what is best for each individual, must be best for the whole. If a
man would rather be the machine, I cannot argue with him. He is a
different being from me.' BOSWELL. 'A man, as a machine, may have
agreeable sensations; for instance, he may have pleasure in musick.'
JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, he cannot have pleasure in musick; at least no power
of producing musick; for he who can produce musick may let it alone: he
who can play upon a fiddle may break it: such a man is not a machine.'
This reasoning satisfied me. It is certain, there cannot be a free
agent, unless there is the power of being evil as well as good. We must
take the inherent possibilities of things into consideration, in our
reasonings or conjectures concerning the works