oung Col, his
merits were all remembered. At Ulva he had appeared in a new character,
having given us a good prescription for a cold. On my mentioning him
with warmth, Dr. Johnson said, 'Col does every thing for us: we will
erect a statue to Col.' 'Yes, said I, and we will have him with his
various attributes and characters, like Mercury, or any other of the
heathen gods. We will have him as a pilot; we will have him as a
fisherman, as a hunter, as a husbandman, as a physician.'

I this morning took a spade, and dug a little grave in the floor of a
ruined chapel[878], near Sir Allan M'Lean's house, in which I buried
some human bones I found there. Dr. Johnson praised me for what I had
done, though he owned, he could not have done it. He shewed in the
chapel at Rasay[879] his horrour at dead men's bones. He shewed it again
at Col's house. In the Charter-room there was a remarkable large
shin-bone, which was said to have been a bone of _John Garve_[880], one
of the lairds. Dr. Johnson would not look at it; but started away.

At breakfast, I asked, 'What is the reason that we are angry at a
trader's having opulence[881]?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, the reason is,
(though I don't undertake to prove that there is a reason,) we see no
qualities in trade that should entitle a man to superiority. We are not
angry at a soldier's getting riches, because we see that he possesses
qualities which we have not. If a man returns from a battle, having lost
one hand, and with the other full of gold, we feel that he deserves the
gold; but we cannot think that a fellow, by sitting all day at a desk,
is entitled to get above us.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, may we not suppose a
merchant to be a man of an enlarged mind, such as Addison in the
_Spectator_ describes Sir Andrew Freeport to have been?' JOHNSON. 'Why,
Sir, we may suppose any fictitious character. We may suppose a
philosophical day-labourer, who is happy in reflecting that, by his
labour, he contributes to the fertility of the earth, and to the support
of his fellow-creatures; but we find no such philosophical day-labourer.
A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind; but there is
nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind[882].'

I mentioned that I had heard Dr. Solander say he was a Swedish
Laplander[883]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I don't believe he is a Laplander. The
Laplanders are not much above four feet high. He is as tall as you; and
he has not the copper colour of a Laplander.'