solatia vitae,
       Sive libros poscant otia, sive lyram. 
     Luxerat ilia dies, legis gens docta supernae
       Spes hominum ac curas cum procul esse jubet,
     Ponti inter strepitus sacri non munera cultus
       Cessarunt; pietas hic quoque cura fuit: 
     Quid quod sacrifici versavit femina libros,
       Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces[876]. 
     Quo vagor ulterius? quod ubique requiritur hic est;
       Hic secura quies, hic et honestus amor[877].

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18.

We agreed to pass this day with Sir Allan, and he engaged to have every thing in order for our voyage to-morrow.

Being now soon to be separated from our amiable friend young Col, his merits were all remembered.  At Ulva he had appeared in a new character, having given us a good prescription for a cold.  On my mentioning him with warmth, Dr. Johnson said, ’Col does every thing for us:  we will erect a statue to Col.’  ’Yes, said I, and we will have him with his various attributes and characters, like Mercury, or any other of the heathen gods.  We will have him as a pilot; we will have him as a fisherman, as a hunter, as a husbandman, as a physician.’

I this morning took a spade, and dug a little grave in the floor of a ruined chapel[878], near Sir Allan M’Lean’s house, in which I buried some human bones I found there.  Dr. Johnson praised me for what I had done, though he owned, he could not have done it.  He shewed in the chapel at Rasay[879] his horrour at dead men’s bones.  He shewed it again at Col’s house.  In the Charter-room there was a remarkable large shin-bone, which was said to have been a bone of John Garve[880], one of the lairds.  Dr. Johnson would not look at it; but started away.

At breakfast, I asked, ’What is the reason that we are angry at a trader’s having opulence[881]?’ JOHNSON.  ’Why, Sir, the reason is, (though I don’t undertake to prove that there is a reason,) we see no qualities in trade that should entitle a man to superiority.  We are not angry at a soldier’s getting riches, because we see that he possesses qualities which we have not.  If a man returns from a battle, having lost one hand, and with the other full of gold, we feel that he deserves the gold; but we cannot think that a fellow, by sitting all day at a desk, is entitled to get above us.’  BOSWELL.  ’But, Sir, may we not suppose a merchant to be a man of an enlarged mind, such as Addison in the Spectator describes Sir Andrew Freeport to have been?’ JOHNSON.  ’Why, Sir, we may suppose any fictitious character.  We may suppose a philosophical day-labourer, who is happy in reflecting that, by his labour, he contributes to the fertility of the earth, and to the support of his fellow-creatures; but we find no such philosophical day-labourer.  A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind; but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind[882].’