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. Few have opportunities of hearing a long
composition often enough to learn it, or have inclination to repeat it so
often as is necessary to retain it; and what is once forgotten is lost
for ever. I believe there cannot be recovered, in the whole Earse
language, five hundred lines of which there is any evidence to prove them
a hundred years old. Yet I hear that the father of Ossian boasts of two
chests more of ancient poetry, which he suppresses, because they are too
good for the English.

He that goes into the Highlands with a mind naturally acquiescent, and a
credulity eager for wonders, may come back with an opinion very different
from mine; for the inhabitants knowing the ignorance of all strangers in
their language and antiquities, perhaps are not very scrupulous adherents
to truth; yet I do not say that they deliberately speak studied
falsehood, or have a settled purpose to deceive. They have inquired and
considered little, and do not always feel their own ignorance. They are
not much accustomed to be interrogated by others; and seem never to have
thought upon interrogating themselves; so that if they do not know what
they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive it to be
false.

Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the result of his
investigations was, that the answer to the second question was commonly
such as nullified the answer to the first.

We were a while told, that they had an old translation of the scriptures;
and told it till it would appear obstinacy to inquire again. Yet by
continued accumulation of questions we found, that the translation meant,
if any meaning there were, was nothing else than the Irish Bible.

We heard of manuscripts that were, or that had