The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

J90 THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
But Ireland, it is objected, may with a juft
poetical propriety be faid to lament the {laugh-
ter even of the Caledonians, if Ireland was peo-
pled from Caledonia, and if the Irifti and Cale^
donians maintained a friendly intercourfe together.
If both thefe fafts were true, one of which
Mr. Macpherfon has vainly atfempted to prove
before, and the other he now fuppofes only
and even if Chmdian was acquainted with both ;
fuch an introduction of Ireland, as Claudian
here makes of lerne, would certainly be abfurd.
It would be abfurd in its own nature, as poetry
is not to point at diftant and generally unknown
relations in its perfonifications, but only the
near and the known. The former would give
fuch an obfcurity to the bcft imagery of hifto-
rical poetry, as would totally prevent its elFeft.
And, if we allowed ourfelves to interpret an
hiftorical poet in this manner, we might pervert
the whole fyflem of hiilory. But it would be
peculiarly abfurd in the prefent paffage. Clau-
dian fpeaks of three diftinCt nations, the Sax-
ons, the Pi£l:s, and the Scots ; and by his per-
fonifications affigns them three diftinft coun-
tries, the Orkneys, where the Saxons appear to
have fettled ', Thule or Caledonia, and lernc
or Ireland. And fliall Mr. Macpherfon, for th^
fake of gratifying the national prejudice of his
* Nennius, c. 37.
countrymen^