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Dr
Samuel Johnson
 Samuel
Johnson (1709-1784) was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, the son of a
bookseller. He was a student at Oxford but was forced to leave after two years
of study due to poverty. He began his literary career in London contributing to The
Gentleman's Magazine as a reporter of Parliamentary debates. Among his
literary works are: London (1738), The Vanity of Human
Wishes (1749), The Rambler (1750), A Dictionary of
the English Language (1755), Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
(1759), The Lives of the English Poets (1779-81).
In 1773
Johnson toured Scotland with his friend James Boswell and recorded his
impressions in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Johnson
attempted to produce an objective account of the way of life he found in the
islands, but his own prejudices and viewpoints were too strong to be kept in the
background. He had hoped to find a way of life very different from that he knew,
but was frequently disappointed:
"We
came hither too late to see what we expected, a people of peculiar appearance,
and a system of antiquated life. The clans retain little now of their original
character, their ferocity of temper is softened, their military ardour is
extinguished, their dignity of independence is depressed, their contempt of
government subdued, and their reverence for their chiefs abated ...They are now
acquainted with money, and the possibility of gain will by degrees make them
industrious. Such is the effect of the late regulations, that a longer journey
than to the Highlands must be taken by him whose curiosity pants for savage
virtues and barbarous grandeur."
Samuel
Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) p50
It is no
great surprise that Johnson left a trail of offended Highlanders in his wake;
consider this passage from Boswell's journal:
"Dr
Johnson got into one of his fits of railing at the Scots. He owned that they had
been a very learned nation for a hundred years, from about 1550 to about 1650;
but that they afforded the only one instance of a people among whom the arts of
civil life did not advance in proportion with learning; that they had hardly any
trade, any money, or any elegance, before the Union; that it was strange that,
with all the advantages possessed by other nations, they had not any of those
conveniencies and embellishments which are the fruit of industry, till they came
in contact with a civilized people. 'We have taught you, (said he,) and we'll do
the same in time to all barbarous nations, - to the Cherokees, - and at last to
the Ouran-Outangs;' laughing with much glee ..."
James
Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, (1785) pp347-8
Johnson
constantly compared the Highlands (the unknown) with England (the known norm).
In his journal he tries to give empirical evidence but makes continual
subconscious distortions; he gives a descriptive account followed by a
philosophical interpretation. He believed that oral traditions were dying, but
it is obvious that he had little understanding of those oral traditions. He
claimed, for instance, that no bard could have memorized the length of poem that
they were renowned for reciting - he could not, or would not acknowledge the
level of skill possessed by Gaelic bards.
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