There was a blazing peat-fire, and Mrs. M'Lean, daughter of
the minister of the parish, got us tea. I felt still the motion of the
sea. Dr. Johnson said, it was not in imagination, but a continuation of
motion on the fluids, like that of the sea itself after the storm
is over.
There were some books on the board which served as a chimney-piece. Dr.
Johnson took up Burnet's _History of his own Times_[776]. He said, 'The
first part of it is one of the most entertaining books in the English
language; it is quite dramatick: while he went about every where, saw
every where, and heard every where. By the first part, I mean so far as
it appears that Burnet himself was actually engaged in what he has told;
and this may be easily distinguished.' Captain M'Lean censured Burnet,
for his high praise of Lauderdale in a dedication[777], when he shews
him in his history to have been so bad a man. JOHNSON. 'I do not myself
think that a man should say in a dedication what he could not say in a
history. However, allowance should be made; for there is a great
difference. The known style of a dedication is flattery: it professes
to flatter. There is the same difference between what a man says in a
dedication, and what he says in a history, as between a lawyer's
pleading a cause, and reporting it.'
The day passed away pleasantly enough.
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