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any more than to my own wishes; and one reason for my rejoicing at your laudable and useful undertaking, of compiling a dictionary and grammar of our mother tongue, was, that it would add to my knowledge of it. I am happy to see in the Messrs Macphersons and you, men who are not ashamed to own their native country or language, like the most of us, who, as soon as we know any thing of any other language or people, endeavour to recommend ourselves to them by denying the knowledge of, or running down, our own; because, forsooth, some of these strangers are modest and good-natured enough to do it, when, at the same time, their ignorance in these matters renders it impossible, in the nature of things, that they should be capable of judging. I often blushed, when I considered, that none of our learned, two or three excepted, ever had the public spirit to collect the roots of our language into a dictionary, or polish it, any more than our great men to patronise them; when not only Ireland and Wales, but even Cornwall, Bas-Breton, and Biscay, had several dictionaries of their dialects. Now, however, I hope to see something done to our dialect of the first language of south and west Europe, like what M. Bullet has done to the foreign dialects of it, and that future historians and antiquaries will reap from that original language and its descriptive names, &c. as well as philologists from what other languages now spoke, as well as the Latin, have borrowed from it, a light, pleasure, and advantage, they have as yet no notion of, if they choose it. If this is not done soon, our language will become as great a mystery as the religion of the Druids, particularly the names of places and other things, of which they were descriptions as well as names.

But you have not writ for an encomium upon the language, but for materials; and I am sorry that my absence from the country where it is spoke puts it out of my power to be of much service to you in that way. Did I indeed reside in it, my zeal would probably prompt me to catch as much as I could; but in my present situation, I am as like to lose of what I have, as to add any thing to my knowledge of it.

I make no doubt but my keenness may have led me into indiscretion already, in telling some of your society my mind upon the subject, when it was neither asked nor necessary, perhaps; but this you must attribute to my love to the subject, and my desire to inflame their zeal. To this too you must ascribe, what I am now to beg of you, namely, that you would make your plan as extensive as possible, and prosecute it with the utmost vigour, while the nation seems to be in some humour for relishing things of this nature, as well as you are to undertake it; for if any person or consideration whatever induce you to drop it now, as M'Colm^[1] did, it is a thousand to one if it is resumed before it is too late, if at all. I wish too you could get some persons of rank and influence to patronize the undertaking, that you may be enabled to procure all the books upon the subject, and more especially to send some of your best hands to every corner of Scotland where that language is spoke, and to the Isle of Man, the language of which is a dialect of the Scots Galic, with very little mixture, beyond controversy, and nearest allied to that spoke on the confines of the Lowlands; which you may see demonstrated by a book, entitled, "The Principles and Duties of Christianity," published by the late bishop of Sodor and Man, Manks and English; only they have not followed our orthography, I suppose, because they did not know the languages to be almost the same, and they pronounce differently. Books throw light upon the living language, and vice versa. But what is already in books, particularly in dictionaries, is not so absolutely necessary, or so much your peculiar province, as the first undertakers of this kind in Scotland, as what never was; and that is a very great part of the Scots dialect of the Galic; though, at the same time, the performance should be complete, by collecting the whole, though common to us, with others, and published by them. But should the world still retain so much prejudice that you can't have such patrons, I intreat you to persist still