' I owned, that the English were easily struck with
any thing that appeared ludicrous, and apt to laugh accordingly;
but it did not follow, that, because they were more given to
laughter, they had more rationality than their neighbours: I
said, such an inference would be an injury to the Scots, who were
by no means defective in rationality, though generally supposed
little subject to the impressions of humour.
The captain answered, that this supposition must have been
deduced either from their conversation or their compositions, of
which the English could not possibly judge with precision, as
they did not understand the dialect used by the Scots in common
discourse, as well as in their works of humour. When I desired to
know what those works of humour were, he mentioned a considerable
number of pieces, which he insisted were equal in point of humour
to any thing extant in any language dead or living -- He, in
particular, recommended a collection of detached poems, in two
small volumes, intituled, The Ever-Green, and the works of Allan
Ramsay, which I intend to provide myself with at Edinburgh. -- He
observed, that a North-Briton is seen to a disadvantage in an
English company, because he speaks in a dialect that they can't
relish, and in a phraseology which they don't understand.
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