After dinner I started the subject of the temple of ANAITIS. Mr. M'Queen
had laid stress on the name given to the place by the country
people,--_Ainnit_; and added, 'I knew not what to make of this piece of
antiquity, till I met with the _Anaitidis delubrum_ in Lydia, mentioned
by Pausanias and the elder Pliny.' Dr. Johnson, with his usual
acuteness, examined Mr. M'Queen as to the meaning of the word _Ainnit_,
in Erse; and it proved to be a _water-place_, or a place near water,
'which,' said Mr. M'Queen, 'agrees with all the descriptions of the
temples of that goddess, which were situated near rivers, that there
might be water to wash the statue.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, the argument
from the name is gone. The name is exhausted by what we see. We have no
occasion to go to a distance for what we can pick up under our feet. Had
it been an accidental name, the similarity between it and Anaitis might
have had something in it; but it turns out to be a mere physiological
name.' Macleod said, Mr. M'Queen's knowledge of etymology had destroyed
his conjecture. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; Mr. M'Queen is like the eagle
mentioned by Waller, who was shot with an arrow feather'd from his own
wing[612].' Mr. M'Queen would not, however, give up his conjecture.
JOHNSON. 'You have one possibility for you, and all possibilities
against you.
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