He told me, when we were by ourselves, that he thought it very wrong in the printer to shew Warburton’s letter, as it was raising a body of enemies against him.  He thought it foolish in Warburton to write so to the printer; and added, ’Sir, the worst way of being intimate, is by scribbling.’  He called Warburton’s Doctrine of Grace[291] a poor performance, and so he said was Wesley’s Answer[292].  ’Warburton, he observed, had laid himself very open.  In particular, he was weak enough to say, that, in some disorders of the imagination, people had spoken with tongues, had spoken languages which they never knew before; a thing as absurd as to say, that, in some disorders of the imagination, people had been known to fly.’

I talked of the difference of genius, to try if I could engage Gerard in a disquisition with Dr. Johnson; but I did not succeed.  I mentioned, as a curious fact, that Locke had written verses.  JOHNSON.  ’I know of none, Sir, but a kind of exercise prefixed to Dr. Sydenham’s Works[293], in which he has some conceits about the dropsy, in which water and burning are united; and how Dr. Sydenham removed fire by drawing off water, contrary to the usual practice, which is to extinguish fire by bringing water upon it.  I am not sure that there is a word of all this; but it is such kind of talk[294].’  We spoke of Fingal[295].  Dr. Johnson said calmly, ’If the poems were really translated, they were certainly first written down.  Let Mr. Macpherson deposite the manuscript in one of the colleges at Aberdeen, where there are people who can judge; and, if the professors certify the authenticity, then there will be an end of the controversy.  If he does not take this obvious and easy method, he gives the best reason to doubt; considering too, how much is against it a priori’.

We sauntered after dinner in Sir Alexander’s garden, and saw his little grotto, which is hung with pieces of poetry written in a fair hand.  It was agreeable to observe the contentment and kindness of this quiet, benevolent man.  Professor Macleod was brother to Macleod of Talisker, and brother-in-law to the Laird of Col.  He gave me a letter to young Col.  I was weary of this day, and began to think wishfully of being again in motion.  I was uneasy to think myself too fastidious, whilst I fancied Dr. Johnson quite satisfied.  But he owned to me that he was fatigued and teased by Sir Alexander’s doing too much to entertain him.  I said, it was all kindness.  JOHNSON.  ’True, Sir; but sensation is sensation.’  BOSWELL.  ’It is so:  we feel pain equally from the surgeon’s probe, as from the sword of the foe.’