Physico-Theology_[867].'

Every particular concerning this island having been so well described by
Dr. Johnson, it would be superfluous in me to present the publick with
the observations that I made upon it, in my _Journal_.

I was quite easy with Sir Allan almost instantaneously. He knew the
great intimacy that had been between my father and his predecessor, Sir
Hector, and was himself of a very frank disposition. After dinner, Sir
Allan said he had got Dr. Campbell about an hundred subscribers to his
_Britannia Elucidata_, (a work since published under the title of _A
Political Survey of Great Britain_[868],) of whom he believed twenty
were dead, the publication having been so long delayed. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I
imagine the delay of publication is owing to this;--that, after
publication, there will be no more subscribers, and few will send the
additional guinea to get their books: in which they will be wrong; for
there will be a great deal of instruction in the work. I think highly of
Campbell[869]. In the first place, he has very good parts. In the second
place, he has very extensive reading; not, perhaps, what is properly
called learning, but history, politicks, and, in short, that popular
knowledge which makes a man very useful. In the third place, he has
learned much by what is called the _vox viva_. He talks with a great
many people.'

Speaking of this gentleman, at Rasay, he told us, that he one day called
on him, and they talked of Tull's _Husbandry_[870]. Dr. Campbell said
something. Dr. Johnson began to dispute it. 'Come, (said Dr. Campbell,)
we do not want to get the better of one another: we want to encrease
each other's ideas.' Dr. Johnson took it in good part, and the
conversation then went on coolly and instructively. His candour in
relating this anecdote does him much credit, and his conduct on that
occasion proves how easily he could be persuaded to talk from a better
motive than 'for victory[871].'

Dr. Johnson here shewed so much of the spirit of a Highlander, that he
won Sir Allan's heart: indeed, he has shewn it during the whole of our
Tour. One night, in Col, he strutted about the room with a broad sword
and target, and made a formidable appearance; and, another night, I took
the liberty to put a large blue bonnet on his head. His age, his size,
and his bushy grey wig, with this covering on it, presented the image
of a venerable _Senachi_[872]: and, however unfavourable to the Lowland
Scots, he see