He then spoke of St. Kilda, the most remote of the Hebrides.  I told him, I thought of buying it.  Johnson.  ’Pray do, Sir.  We will go and pass a winter amid the blasts there.  We shall have fine fish, and we will take some dried tongues with us, and some books.  We will have a strong built vessel, and some Orkney men to navigate her.  We must build a tolerable house:  but we may carry with us a wooden house ready made, and requiring nothing but to be put up.  Consider, Sir, by buying St. Kilda, you may keep the people from falling into worse hands.  We must give them a clergyman, and he shall be one of Beattie’s choosing.  He shall be educated at Marischal College.  I’ll be your Lord Chancellor, or what you please.’  Boswell.  ’Are you serious, Sir, in advising me to buy St. Kilda? for if you should advise me to go to Japan, I believe I should do it.’  Johnson.  ‘Why yes, Sir, I am serious.’  Boswell.  ’Why then, I’ll see what can be done.’

He was engaged to dine abroad, and asked me to return to him in the evening at nine, which I accordingly did.

We drank tea with Mrs. Williams, who told us a story of second sight, which happened in Wales where she was born.  He listened to it very attentively, and said he should be glad to have some instances of that faculty well authenticated.  His elevated wish for more and more evidence for spirit, in opposition to the groveling belief of materialism, led him to a love of such mysterious disquisitions.  He again justly observed, that we could have no certainty of the truth of supernatural appearances, unless something was told us which we could not know by ordinary means, or something done which could not be done but by supernatural power; that Pharaoh in reason and justice required such evidence from Moses; nay, that our Saviour said, ’If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin.’

We talked of the Roman Catholick religion, and how little difference there was in essential matters between ours and it.  Johnson.  ’True, Sir; all denominations of Christians have really little difference in point of doctrine, though they may differ widely in external forms.  There is a prodigious difference between the external form of one of your Presbyterian churches in Scotland, and a church in Italy; yet the doctrine taught is essentially the same.

In the morning we had talked of old families, and the respect due to them.  Johnson.  ’Sir, you have a right to that kind of respect, and are arguing for yourself.  I am for supporting the principle, and am disinterested in doing it, as I have no such right.’  Boswell.  ’Why, Sir, it is one more incitement to a man to do well.’  Johnson.  ’Yes, Sir, and it is a matter of opinion, very necessary to keep society together.  What is it but opinion, by which we have a respect for authority, that prevents us, who are the rabble, from rising up and pulling