ion.

'Though what I had said had been true, if it had been disagreeable to
you, I should have wished it unsaid; for it is not my business to adjust
precedence. As it is mistaken, I find myself disposed to correct, both
by my respect for you, and my reverence for truth. 'As I know not when
the book will be reprinted, I have desired Mr. Boswell to anticipate the
correction in the Edinburgh papers. This is all that can be done.

'I hope I may now venture to desire that my compliments may be made, and
my gratitude expressed, to Lady Rasay, Mr. Malcolm M'Leod, Mr. Donald
M'Queen, and all the gentlemen and all the ladies whom I saw in the
island of Rasay; a place which I remember with too much pleasure and too
much kindness, not to be sorry that my ignorance, or hasty persuasion,
should, for a single moment, have violated its tranquillity.

'I beg you all to forgive an undesigned and involuntary injury, and to
consider me as,

'Sir, your most obliged,

'And most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON[1142].'

'London, May 6, 1775.'

It would be improper for me to boast of my own labours; but I cannot
refrain from publishing such praise as I received from such a man as Sir
William Forbes, of Pitsligo, after the perusal of the original
manuscript of my _Journal_[1143].

'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'Edinburgh, March 7, 1777.

'My DEAR SIR,

'I ought to have thanked you sooner, for your very obliging letter, and
for the singular confidence you are pleased to place in me, when you
trust me with such a curious and valuable deposit as the papers you
have sent me[1144]. Be assured I have a due sense of this favour, and
shall faithfully and carefully return them to you. You may rely that I
shall neither copy any part, nor permit the papers to be seen.

'They contain a curious picture of society, and form a journal on the
most instructive plan that can possibly be thought of; for I am not sure
that an ordinary observer would become so well acquainted either with
Dr. Johnson, or with the manners of the Hebrides, by a personal
intercourse, as by a perusal of your _Journal_.

'I am, very truly,

'Dear Sir,

'Your most obedient,

'And affectionate humble servant,

'WILLIAM FORBES.'

When I consider how many of the persons mentioned in this Tour
are now gone to 'that undiscovered country, from whose bourne no
traveller returns[1145],' I feel an impression at once awful and
tender.--_Requiescant in pace!_

It may be objec