" Perhaps the chief causes which have tended to sink the estimation of the Scottish 'tongue, may be sought in the operation of that extensive principle, the association of ideas. The Scottish dialect is not now the language of the noble, the opulent, and the fashionable. It is no longer the style in which the transactions of public and of private business are con ducted. It is but seldom and partially employed in conversation by the more enlightened and accom plished. It is heard chiefly from the mouths of the low, the illiterate, and the unpolished. It is unfor tunately associated, therefore, with every thing re lating to them; and indeed is too often contaminated and debased by their brutality, ignorance, and vice. In a different arrangement of things, however, very different ideas would, by the same principle, have been attached to it. When spoken by our indepen dent and aspiring chieftains; when written by our men of genius and learning; and when pronounced by our beauteous queens and their attendant fair, its dig nity was no doubt acknowledged, its vigour experi enced, and its sweetness admired.
With this general principle of association other ac cidental circumstances have concurred; and, by their united agency,not only has the estimation of the Scot tish dialect been diminished, but its own intrinsic worth also impaired. By men of real knowledge and classical taste it has very rarely been cultivated; and to the undirected attempts of less intelligent and polish ed minds, it has been almost entirely abandoned. From superior talents it has derived no improve ment; and from celebrated names it has derived no support. Is it at all wonderful, then, that its culture should have languished, and its celebrity decayed ? The indiscriminate use of Scottish terms and phrases by those who have composed in that dialect, may be considered as no inconsiderable cause of the decrease of its fame, and the depravation of its worth. When our vernacular tongue was the only language commonly spoken and written in the kingdom, a con siderable diversity of diction would undoubtedly pre vail. In it as in other languages, there would be certain epithets and expressions, certain colloquial and parenthetical phrases, employed by the lower classes, but proscribed in the circles of fashion and taste. There would, in short, be something of a po lite and vulgar phraseology. But whether or not such a distinction ever existed in Scotland, it is evi dent that the present days of delicacy and refinement require some judgment and discretion in the applica tion of words. Almost all our modern Scottish poets, however, have paid less attention to this circumstance than it deserved. They appear to have been more anxious to procure a collection of expressive vocables purely Scottish, than to cultivate elegance and deli cacy of style. In this respect they have made little selection, but have promiscuously employed all the phraseology of the language : the vulgar, the ludi crous, and the indelicate, have been thrown into their compositions with an unsparing and undistinguishing hand. And this circumstance has probably contri
buted as much as any other to debase the poetry in general in the estimation of many; to stamp upon it a mark of coarseness and vulgarity; to burlesque the most tender sonnets, to offend the judicious taste, and disgust the delicate ear. In consequence of the long disuse of the language in fashionable life, it may in deed be difficult to ascertain exactly the more elegant diction; and perhaps in the present day, it may be regarded as trifling and absurd to speak of the pure and the polite as existing in the Scottish tongue. Some attempt at discrimination, however, may still be made. The more ancient Scottish writings may serve, in some degree, as guides and examples. For it is an undeniable fact, that in point of delicacy these are far superior to the compositions of later times. Indeed, after making allowances for the age in which they were written, they are rather remarkable in this respect.
The Scottish language appears, as was observed, to be possessed of recommendations which render it even in the present day neither unworthy of attention, nor incapable of improvement. It is not the language of an unlearned people. It is an incontestible fact, that at a very early period, classical literature was pretty generally cultivated in the court of Scotland. It is natural to conclude, that this circumstance must have tended considerably to improve the language of the country; and the conclusion is confirmed by the strik ing coincidence, which, in many instances, exists be tween the Scotch and the learned tongues ; and there is perhaps no modern language into which the idioms of Greek and Roman writers can be more literally rendered, without impairing the sense of the original, than into that of the Scotch. The study of polite literature appears to have been in a more advanced state in Scotland some centuries ago than in many of the other countries of Europe. By those who have the opportunities of examining, and possess the power of judging, it is asserted that the letters and memo rials of the Scottish princes are the finest composi tions of the age in which they were written, and far superior in correctness, elegance, and arrangement, to those which were returned to them in answer. Now it is not a mere hypothetical deduction, that the language of the natives, in general, must have deriv ed some improvement from the learning of the court. For it is known that Barbour, a Scottish historian, philosopher, and poet, though considerably prior in time to Chaucer, wrote in a style as pure, and a ver sification as harmonious as the English bard. The verse compositions of James I. and the publication of James VI. containing precepts for writing Scottish poetry; and the numerous collections of ancient pro ductions in that dialect, which are still extant, fur nish positive proofs that in Scotland, at an early period, attempts in verse were not only general and successful, but encouraged also by the patronage and example of the court.