-- Perhaps, the
gratitude excited by these benefits may interfere with the
impartiality of my remarks; for a man is as apt to be
prepossessed by particular favours as to be prejudiced by private
motives of disgust. If I am partial, there is, at least, some
merit in my conversion from illiberal prejudices which had grown
up with my constitution.
The first impressions which an Englishman receives in this
country, will not contribute to the removal of his prejudices;
because he refers every thing he sees to a comparison with the
same articles in his own country; and this comparison is
unfavourable to Scotland in all its exteriors, such as the face
of the country in respect to cultivation, the appearance of the
bulk of the people, and the language of conversation in general. --
I am not so far convinced by Mr Lismahago's arguments, but that
I think the Scots would do well, for their own sakes, to adopt
the English idioms and pronunciation; those of them especially,
who are resolved to push their fortunes in South-Britain -- I know,
by experience, how easily an Englishman is influenced by the ear,
and how apt he is to laugh, when he hears his own language spoken
with a foreign or provincial accent -- I have known a member of the
house of commons speak with great energy and precision, without
being able to engage attention, because his observations were
made in the Scotch dialect, which (no offence to lieutenant
Lismahago) certainly gives a clownish air even to sentiments of
the greatest dignity and decorum.
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