The world is now not contented to be merely entertained by a traveller's
narrative; they want to learn something. Now some of my friends asked
me, why I did not give some account of my travels in France. The reason
is plain; intelligent readers had seen more of France than I had. YOU
might have liked my travels in France, and THE CLUB might have liked
them; but, upon the whole, there would have been more ridicule than good
produced by them.' BOSWELL. 'I cannot agree with you, Sir. People would
like to read what you say of any thing. Suppose a face has been painted
by fifty painters before; still we love to see it done by Sir Joshua.'
JOHNSON. 'True, Sir, but Sir Joshua cannot paint a face when he has
not time to look on it.' BOSWELL. 'Sir, a sketch of any sort by him is
valuable. And, Sir, to talk to you in your own style (raising my voice,
and shaking my head,) you SHOULD have given us your travels in France. I
am SURE I am right, and THERE'S AN END ON'T.'
I said to him that it was certainly true, as my friend Dempster had
observed in his letter to me upon the subject, that a great part of what
was in his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland had been in his
mind before he left London.
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