He that cannot read, may now converse with
those that can; but the Bard was a barbarian among barbarians, who,
knowing nothing himself, lived with others that knew no more.
There has lately been in the Islands one of these illiterate poets,
who hearing the Bible read at church, is said to have turned the
sacred history into verse. I heard part of a dialogue, composed by
him, translated by a young lady in Mull, and thought it had more
meaning than I expected from a man totally uneducated; but he had
some opportunities of knowledge; he lived among a learned people.
After all that has been done for the instruction of the
Highlanders, the antipathy between their language and literature
still continues; and no man that has learned only Earse is, at this
time, able to read.
The Earse has many dialects, and the words used in some Islands are
not always known in others. In literate nations, though the
pronunciation, and sometimes the words of common speech may differ,
as now in England, compared with the South of Scotland, yet there
is a written diction, which pervades all dialects, and is
understood in every province. But where the whole language is
colloquial, he that has only one part, never gets the rest, as he
cannot get it but by change of residence.
In an unwritten speech, nothing that is not very short is
transmitted from one generation to another.
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