The present family
on the throne came to the crown against the will of nine tenths of the
people.[736] Whether those nine tenths were right or wrong, it is not
our business now to enquire. But such being the situation of the royal
family, they were glad to encourage all who would be their friends. Now
you know every bad man is a Whig; every man who has loose notions. The
church was all against this family. They were, as I say, glad to
encourage any friends; and therefore, since their accession, there is no
instance of any man being kept back on account of his bad principles;
and hence this inundation of impiety[737].' I observed that Mr. Hume,
some of whose writings were very unfavourable to religion, was, however,
a Tory. JOHNSON. 'Sir, Hume is a Tory by chance[738] as being a
Scotchman; but not upon a principle of duty; for he has no principle. If
he is any thing, he is a Hobbist.'

There was something not quite serene in his humour to-night, after
supper; for he spoke of hastening away to London, without stopping much
at Edinburgh. I reminded him that he had General Oughton and many others
to see. JOHNSON. 'Nay, I shall neither go in jest, nor stay in jest. I
shall do what is fit.' BOSWELL. 'Ay, Sir, but all I desire is, that you
will let me tell you when it is fit.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I shall not consult
you.' BOSWELL. 'If you are to run away from us, as soon as you get
loose, we will keep you confined in an island.' He was, however, on the
whole, very good company. Mr. Donald McLeod expressed very well the
gradual impression made by Dr. Johnson on those who are so fortunate as
to obtain his acquaintance. 'When you see him first, you are struck with
awful reverence;--then you admire him;--and then you love him
cordially.'

I read this evening some part of Voltaire's _History of the War_ in
1741[739], and of Lord Kames against Hereditary Indefeasible Right. This
is a very slight circumstance, with which I should not trouble my
reader, but for the sake of observing that every man should keep minutes
of whatever he reads. Every circumstance of his studies should be
recorded; what books he has consulted; how much of them he has read; at
what times; how often the same authors; and what opinions he formed of
them, at different periods of his life. Such an account would much
illustrate the history of his mind.[740]

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1.

I shewed to Dr. Johnson verses in a magazine, on his _Dictionary_,
composed of u