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36 HISTORY OF THE
lever to dislodge it; it will melt away before the
rays of truth and common sense, and ere we have
done, be no more tangible.
Mr Huddleston himself, like many others, stum-
bles upon the confusion of Babel, as well as upon
the unphilosophical notion of language being the
result of immediate inspiration ! If by inspiration
any person means the poiver of making a language
— the gift of ojwmatopcpin — of reflecting sound —
of mimicking action — of employing metaphor — of
giving articulate expression to our sensations — of
shuffling our feet to music — and of assuming this
or that attitude at pleasure, that person and we are
agreed : but if any person mean by the term inspir-
ation, that primitive man, the first day of his exis-
tence, was inflated, (for that is the primary idea of
the term inspiration) and then and there endowed
with the entire of his nomenclature — that he got
then and there a vocabulary of sounds without ideas
breathed into him, that person and we, be he whom
he may, are not agreed. Language is a creation ever
progressing and ever decaying, as we shall very soon
attempt to make plain. Which would be the
greater miracle ? — which would be the easier, for
our progenitor to tax his memory in one day with
a thousand terms of which the idea was future
and to learn ; or, to endow him with the requisite
powers to make them as necessity prompted ?
iMankind is not an inapt emblem of our idea of
lever to dislodge it; it will melt away before the
rays of truth and common sense, and ere we have
done, be no more tangible.
Mr Huddleston himself, like many others, stum-
bles upon the confusion of Babel, as well as upon
the unphilosophical notion of language being the
result of immediate inspiration ! If by inspiration
any person means the poiver of making a language
— the gift of ojwmatopcpin — of reflecting sound —
of mimicking action — of employing metaphor — of
giving articulate expression to our sensations — of
shuffling our feet to music — and of assuming this
or that attitude at pleasure, that person and we are
agreed : but if any person mean by the term inspir-
ation, that primitive man, the first day of his exis-
tence, was inflated, (for that is the primary idea of
the term inspiration) and then and there endowed
with the entire of his nomenclature — that he got
then and there a vocabulary of sounds without ideas
breathed into him, that person and we, be he whom
he may, are not agreed. Language is a creation ever
progressing and ever decaying, as we shall very soon
attempt to make plain. Which would be the
greater miracle ? — which would be the easier, for
our progenitor to tax his memory in one day with
a thousand terms of which the idea was future
and to learn ; or, to endow him with the requisite
powers to make them as necessity prompted ?
iMankind is not an inapt emblem of our idea of
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Early Gaelic Book Collections > Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language > (42) |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/76179071 |
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Description | A selection of books from a collection of more than 500 titles, mostly on religious and literary topics. Also includes some material dealing with other Celtic languages and societies. Collection created towards the end of the 19th century by Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray. |
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Description | Selected items from five 'Special and Named Printed Collections'. Includes books in Gaelic and other Celtic languages, works about the Gaels, their languages, literature, culture and history. |
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