from Scotland." "Sir," said Johnson, "no
more can the rest of your countrymen[x]."

He had other reasons that helped to alienate him from the natives of
Scotland. Being a cordial well-wisher to the constitution in church and
state, he did not think that Calvin and John Knox were proper founders
of a national religion. He made, however, a wide distinction between the
dissenters of Scotland and the separatists of England. To the former he
imputed no disaffection, no want of loyalty. Their soldiers and their
officers had shed their blood with zeal and courage in the service of
great Britain; and the people, he used to say, were content with their
own established modes of worship, without wishing, in the present age,
to give any disturbance to the church of England.

This he was, at all times, ready to admit; and, therefore, declared,
that, whenever he found a Scotchman, to whom an Englishman was as a
Scotchman, that Scotchman should be as an Englishman to him. In this,
surely, there was no rancour, no malevolence. The dissenters, on this
side the Tweed, appeared to him in a different light. Their religion, he
frequently said, was too worldly, too political, too restless and
ambitious. The doctrine of cashiering kings, and erecting, on the ruins
of the constitution, a new form of government, which lately issued from
their pulpits, he always thought was, under a calm disguise, the
principle that lay lurking in their hearts. He knew, that a wild
democracy had overturned kings, lords, and commons; and that a set of
republican fanatics, who would not bow at the name of Jesus, had taken
possession of all the livings, and all the parishes in the kingdom. That
those scenes of horror might never be renewed, was the ardent wish of
Dr. Johnson; and, though he apprehended no danger from Scotland, it is
probable, that his dislike of calvinism mingled, sometimes, with his
reflections on the natives of that country. The association of ideas
could not be easily broken; but it is well known, that he loved and
respected many gentlemen from that part of the island. Dr. Robertson's
History of Scotland, and Dr. Beattie's Essays, were subjects of his
constant praise. Mr. Boswell, Dr. Rose, of Chiswick, Andrew Millar, Mr.
Hamilton, the printer, and the late Mr. Strahan, were among his most
intimate friends. Many others might be added to the list. He scorned to
enter Scotland as a spy; though Hawkins, his biographer, and the
professing defender