Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

250 JAMES MACPHERSON.
It was now some thirteen years since the
MSS. had been exhibited. Johnson was as
deaf to Becket's testimony as he was indifferent
to Macpherson's anger. Nor was he at all
moved by a formal challenge from his adversary.^
Having purchased a formidable cudgel, six feet
in length, and ending in a knob three inches
in diameter, he addressed Macpherson in the
following terms : —
" Mr. James Macpherson,
" I received your foolish and impudent
note. Whatever insult is offered me, I will do
my best to rej^el, and what I cannot do for my-
self, the law shall do for me. I will not desist
from detecting what I think a cheat, from any
fear of the menaces of a Ruffian.
" What would you have me retract ? I
thought your book an imposture ; I think it an
imposture still. For this opinion I have given
my reasons to the public, which I here dare you
refute. Your rage I defy. Your abiHties, since
your Homer, are not so formidable ; and what I
hear of your morals inclines me to pay regard,
not to what you shall say, but to what you shall
prove. You may print this if you will.
" Sam. Johnson.^
" 20th January, 1775."
' The gentleman who carried it, WiUiam Duncan, as-
serted the fact in a letter to Sir John Sinclair. See Sinclair,
op. cit., i. ccxx.
" The original of this well-known letter was sold by