THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES, WITH SAMUEL JOHNSON, L.L.D. BY JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. CONTAINING SOME POETICAL PIECES BY DR. JOHNSON, RELATIVE TO THE TOUR, AND A SERIES OF HIS CONVERSATION, LITERARY ANECDOTES, AND OPINIONS OF WITH AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISTRESSES AND ESCAPE OF THE GRANDSON OF KING JAMES II, O! while along the stream of time, thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame, Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?..............Pope. FROM THE LONDON EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY JOHN F. WATSON, No. 98, SOUTH SECOND STREET. 1810. DEDICATION. ΤΟ EDMOND MALONE, Esq. MY DEAR SIR, IN every narrative, whether historical or biogra phical, authenticity is of the utmost consequence. Of this I have ever been so firmly persuaded, that I inscribed a former work to that person who was the best judge of its truth. I need not tell you I mean General Paoli ; who, after his great, though unsuccessful, efforts to preserve the liberties of his country, has found an honourable asylum in Britain, where he has now lived many years the object of Royal regard and private respect; and whom I cannot name without expressing my very grateful sense of the uniform kindness which he has been pleased to shew me. The friends of Dr. Johnson can best judge, from internal evidence, whether the numerous conversations which form the most valuable part of the ensuing pages, are correctly related. To them therefore I wish to appeal, for the accuracy of the portrait here exhibited to the world. As one of those who were intimately acquainted with him, you have a title to this address. You have obligingly taken the trouble to peruse the original manuscript of this Tour, and can vouch for the strict fidelity of the present publication. Your literary alliance with our much-lamented friend, in consequence of having undertaken to render one of his labours more complete, by your edition of Shakspeare, a work which I am confident will not disappoint the expectations of the publick, gives you another claim. But I have a still more powerful inducement to prefix your name to this volume, as it gives me an opportunity of letting the world know that I enjoy the honour and happiness of your friendship; and of thus publickly testifying the sincere regard with which I am, My dear Sir, Your very faithful and obedient servant. JAMES BOSWELL. London, 20th September, 1785. ADVERTISEMENT. BY correcting the errours of the press in the former edition, and some inaccuracies for which the authour alone is answerable, and by supplying some additional notes, I have endeavoured to render this work more deserving of the very high honour which the publick has been pleased to shew it; the whole of the first impression having been sold in a few weeks. LONDON, 20th Dec. 1785. J. B. |