Fairlie, who, with all his attention to
agriculture, finds time both for the classicks and his friends, assures
me they are a distinct species, and that, when any of their calves have
horns, a mixture of breed can be traced. In confirmation of his opinion,
he pointed out to me the following passage in Tacitus,--'_Ne armentis
quidem suus honor, aut gloria frontis_[1034];' (_De mor. Germ. Sec. 5_)
which he wondered had escaped Dr. Johnson.
On the front of the house of Auchinleck is this inscription:--
'Quod petis, hic est;
Est Ulubris; animus si te non deficit aequus[1035].'
It is characteristick of the founder; but the _animus aequus_ is, alas!
not inheritable, nor the subject of devise. He always talked to me as if
it were in a man's own power to attain it; but Dr. Johnson told me that
he owned to him, when they were alone, his persuasion that it was in a
great measure constitutional, or the effect of causes which do not
depend on ourselves, and that Horace boasts too much, when he says,
_aequum mi animum ipse parabo_[1036].
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5.
The Reverend Mr. Dun, our parish minister, who had dined with us
yesterday, with some other company, insisted that Dr. Johnson and I
should dine with him to-day. This gave me an opportunity to shew my
friend the road to the church, made by my father at a great expence, for
above three miles, on his own estate, through a range of well enclosed
farms, with a row of trees on each side of it.
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