Has nae room for twa.
Can the English language produce such a piece of artless simplicity, so natural, so touching, and so telling! No, never. The only fault that I could find with it, is, that there is some of it broader than the broad Scotch itself. I am not aware that “sheen” is ever used for “seen;” and I am not sure that it is strictly true, that there is nae room for twa in the grave to which we all must go. That’s a piece I would recommend to be sung at soirees; it will sing nicely to the air, “There’s nae luck aboot the house.” I was so delighted with the last verse, that I composed a poem in Gaelic on the same subject, suited to the same air.
Let us now bid farewell to our neighbours, leaving them to bake their own cakes the best way they can, and let us retrace our steps to the land of our birth, and to the language of our nature; and in doing so, let me put a question to those who would wish to do away with our native language; can you supply us with a better language for our homes? I defy you. Is there a language upon earth by which our youth can attain the knowledge of God as the author of the great salvation, so readily and with so little trouble and expense, as through the medium of their own native Gaelic? What then shall we say to those parents and to those who have the management of our Schools in the Highlands, who do not teach our youth to read it and to understand it better? I have no hesitation in declaring that they were guilty of a very great crime—of an act of cruelty towards our youth, and of an act of rebellion against God. If God has given a revelation to men, he has appointed the Gaelic to the Highlanders, as the proper medium for obtaining the knowledge of that revelation; and how dare men in their shallow wisdom act towards Highlanders contrary to God’s appointed method of instructing them. The great stumbling-block with ministers, schoolmasters, and proprietors in the Highlands, is, that they do not consider the Gaelic genteel and fashionable, and do not put themselves to the trouble of studying it. I know no study that would repay better than the study of the Gaelic. It is not such a dry, such a complicated affair at all as the study of the English. In studying the Gaelic a man finds himself as among the living, but in studying the English as among the dead. In studying the former he finds himself as it were at home, in studying the latter as among foreigners. The more I study the Gaelic, the more I admire it, and the more am I astonished at the refined imagination which our forefathers had. I have no fears of the Gaelic because it has God for its author. I have no fears of it, because I believe that the spark is still alive in my countrymen which can be kindled into a flame.
When a boy, and at the end of our house (slated, substantially built, two-storey high) and raising my voice, every word that I spoke was repeated by the house. I had a younger brother, who was a great mimic, and thought he was mocking me; so I turned about and addressed the supposed brother: “If you’ll take my advice you’ll be quiet.” “If you’ll take my advice you’ll be quiet,” instantly replied the mimicking brother. “I tell you again to hold your tongue.” “I tell you again to hold your tongue,” as quickly replied. “If you’ll not be quiet I’ll thrash you,” was as quick as lightning repeated. So having spent all my threats, and becoming more and more furious, the mimicking brother becoming equally so, I had at last to desist, being fairly mastered; he on my top, in spite of me. Now I am certain that were I to cry “Shame, shame,” or the more expressive Gaelic, “Mo naire, mo naire” (my shame, my shame), it would with equal distinctness be repeated by the house. So I would have all the Highlanders, from John o’ Groat’s to the Mull of Kintyre, and from Dunkeld to the Butt of Lewes and Cape Wrath, to raise their voices, and, with the strength of their lungs, to cry out “Mo naire, mo naire,” to those parents, those native proprietors, and those ministers and schoolmasters who wish to do away with the Gaelic by not teaching them to read it, so as to make all their castles, palaces, mansions, manses, school-houses, and dwelling-houses to resound “Mo naire, mo naire,” with such a terrific rattling noise as to startle the whole of them out of their houses; and seeing them still standing, each to address the troublesome noise, “Mo naire”—“If you’ll take my advice you’ll be quiet.” “If you’ll take my advice you’ll be quiet,” quickly repeated. “I tell you again to hold your tongue.” “I tell you again to hold your tongue,” instantly repeated. “If you’ll not be quiet I’ll thrash you.” “If you’ll not be quiet I’ll thrash you,” still repeated; and becoming more and more furious, the mimicking something becoming equally so, one and all of them be forced to give way, being fairly mastered, with the hearty Highlanders on their top.
CATECHISM.
A Catechism on the first principles of Divine teaching both by nature and revelation:—
Who are the two great teachers of mankind?—Nature and Revelation.
Who is the author of both?—The great God.
Is the teaching of both unerring or inspired?—Yes; because God is their author.
Is the teaching of both in anything opposed the one to the other?—In nothing, and cannot be so, because they have the same God as their author.