Among the more important events of Johnson’s life, we are bound to mention his acquaintance with Mr. Boswell, which commenced in 1763, not only because it formed an important article among the pleasures of the philosopher’s declining years, but because it led to the composition and publication of the most lively and vivid picture ever given by one man of another, the Life of Johnson. By Boswell, Johnson was induced, in compliance with a wish that he had long before entertained, to undertake a journey to the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides: and it is remarkable that the first English book of travels (as we believe,) into what to the English was then almost a _terra incognita_, should have been composed by a man so careless of natural beauty, and so little disposed to sacrifice his ease and habits to the cravings of curiosity, as Johnson. His desire to visit that country seems to have arisen rather from a wish to study society in a simple form, than from any taste for the wild beauties of our Northern regions, of which he saw not the most favourable specimen, and has given not a flattering account. His Journey to the Western Islands will be read with pleasure, abounding in acute observation, passages of lofty eloquence, and grateful acknowledgment of the kindness and hospitality which he received; kindness which his snappish railings against the Scotch in general never led him to undervalue or forget. His companion and disciple’s account of their expedition will, however, be read with more amusement, from presenting such vivid pictures of the author himself, as well as of the subject which he painted, and of the varied characters to which they were introduced, and scenes in which they intermingled. We may here add that Johnson was a resolute unbeliever in the authenticity of Macpherson’s Ossian, against which, in his book, he pronounced a decided judgment. He thus gave considerable offence to national vanity. To the claims of second-sight he was more favourable. Throughout life he was influenced by a belief, not only in the possibility, but in the occasional exertion of supernatural agencies, beyond the regular operation of the laws of nature.