If he was particularly prejudiced against the Scots, it was
because they were more in his way; because he thought their success in
England rather exceeded the due proportion of their real merit; and
because he could not but see in them that nationality which I believe no
liberal-minded Scotsman will deny. He was indeed, if I may be allowed
the phrase, at bottom much of a _John Bull_[36]; much of a blunt _true
born Englishman_[37]. There was a stratum of common clay under the rock
of marble. He was voraciously fond of good eating[38]; and he had a
great deal of that quality called _humour_, which gives an oiliness and
a gloss to every other quality.
I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of the world.--In my
travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, I
never felt myself from home; and I sincerely love 'every kindred and
tongue and people and nation[39].' I subscribe to what my late truly
learned and philosophical friend Mr. Crosbie[40] said, that the English
are better animals than the Scots; they are nearer the sun; their blood
is richer, and more mellow: but when I humour any of them in an
outrageous contempt of Scotland, I fairly own I treat them as children.
And thus I have, at some moments, found myself obliged to treat even
Dr. Johnson.
To Scotland however he ventured; and he returned from it in great good
humour, with his prejudices much lessened, and with very grateful
feelings of the hospitality with which he was treated; as is evident
from that admirable work, his _Journey to the Western Islands of
Scotland_, which, to my utter astonishment, has been misapprehended,
even to rancour, by many of my countrymen.
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