siderable learning, with abundance of animal
spirits; so that he was a very good companion for Dr. Johnson, who said
to me, 'We have had more solid talk here than at any place where we
have been.'

I remember Dr. Johnson gave us this evening an able and eloquent
discourse on the _Origin of Evil_[983], and on the consistency of moral
evil with the power and goodness of GOD. He shewed us how it arose from
our free agency, an extinction of which would be a still greater evil
than any we experience. I know not that he said any thing absolutely
new, but he said a great deal wonderfully well; and perceiving us to be
delighted and satisfied, he concluded his harangue with an air of
benevolent triumph over an objection which has distressed many worthy
minds: 'This then is the answer to the question, _Pothen to Kakon_?'
Mrs. Smollet whispered me, that it was the best sermon she had ever
heard. Much do I upbraid myself for having neglected to preserve it.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28.

Mr. Smollet pleased Dr. Johnson, by producing a collection of
newspapers in the time of the Usurpation, from which it appeared that
all sorts of crimes were very frequent during that horrible anarchy. By
the side of the high road to Glasgow, at some distance from his house,
he had erected a pillar to the memory of his ingenious kinsman, Dr.
Smollet; and he consulted Dr. Johnson as to an inscription for it. Lord
Kames, who, though he had a great store of knowledge, with much
ingenuity, and uncommon activity of mind, was no profound scholar, had
it seems recommended an English inscription[984]. Dr. Johnson treated
this with great contempt, saying, 'An English inscription would be a
disgrace to Dr. Smollet[985];' and, in answer to what Lord Kames had
urged, as to the advantage of its being in English, because it would be
generally understood, I observed, that all to whom Dr. Smollet's merit
could be an object of respect and imitation, would understand it as well
in Latin; and that surely it was not meant for the Highland drovers, or
other such people, who pass and repass that way.

We were then shewn a Latin inscription, proposed for this monument. Dr.
Johnson sat down with an ardent and liberal earnestness to revise it,
and greatly improved it by several additions and variations. I
unfortunately did not take a copy of it, as it originally stood; but I
have happily preserved every fragment of what Dr. Johnson wrote:--

Quisquis ades, viator[98