.

'The syllogism seems to have been this:

'They who feed on oatmeal are barbarians;
But the Scots feed on oatmeal:
Ergo--

The licentiate denied the _minor_,

I am, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
'DAV. DALRYMPLE.'

'Newhailes, 6th Feb. 1775.'

To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., EDINBURGH.
Dunnichen, 16th February, 1775.

'MY DEAR BOSWELL,

'I cannot omit a moment to return you my best thanks for the
entertainment you have furnished me, my family, and guests, by the
perusal of Dr. Johnson's _Journey to the Western Islands_; and now for
my sentiments of it. I was well entertained. His descriptions are
accurate and vivid. He carried me on the Tour along with him. I am
pleased with the justice he has done to your humour and vivacity. "The
noise of the wind being all its own," is a _bon-mot_, that it would have
been a pity to have omitted, and a robbery not to have ascribed to its
author[1128].

'There is nothing in the book, from beginning to end, that a Scotchman
need to take amiss[1129]. What he says of the country is true, and his
observations on the people are what must naturally occur to a sensible,
observing, and reflecting inhabitant of a _convenient_ Metropolis, where
a man on thirty pounds a year may be better accommodated with all the
little wants of life, than _Col._ or _Sir Allan_. He reasons candidly
about the _second sight_; but I wish he had enquired more, before he
ventured to say he even doubted of the possibility of such an unusual
and useless deviation from all the known laws of nature[1130]. The
notion of the second sight I consider as a remnant of superstitious
ignorance and credulity, which a philosopher will set down as such, till
the contrary is clearly proved, and then it will be classed among the
other certain, though unaccountable parts of our nature, like
dreams[1131], and-I do not know what. 'In regard to the language, it
has the merit of being all his own. Many words of foreign extraction are
used, where, I believe, common ones would do as well, especially on
familiar occasions. Yet I believe he could not express himself so
forcibly in any other stile. I am charmed with his researches concerning
the Erse language, and the antiquity of their manuscripts. I am quite
convinced; and I shall rank _Ossian_, and his _Fingals_ and _Oscars_,
amongst the Nursery Tales, not the true history of our country, in all
time to come.

'Upon the whole, the book