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

THE BRITONS ASSERTED. zp
** infifl upon that criticifm, if by lerna we are
" to underftand I A R, the weflern divifion of
*' Caledonia, from Glotta to Tarvifium, the
" many extenfive arms of the fea, which indent
** that coafl, will, at once, remove the learned
*' prelate's objeftion. Should we fuppofe that
*' lar-in, or the weftern iflands of Scotland, were
" the lerna of Claudian, the objection will al-
" together vaniih, as many of thefe iflands are
" at a much greater diftance than Ireland itfelf
** from the continent of Caledonia. (Stllling-
** fleet remarks, that if Strathern, in the county
*^ of Perth, fliould be admitted to be the lerna of
" Claudian, it would be ridiculous in the poet to
'* fay, that the Scots put in motion the whole of a
"f7nall dlftri^i: of their country. The blfliop did
" not recollect', that it was very common with the
*' antient poets to put a part of a country for the
** whole. Latium is often ufed for the Roman
" empire ;
Mycaense for all the flates of Greece
** and Thule, by Claudian himfelf, for North-
*' Britain.
'* Quem littus aduflas
'* Horrefcit Liby« et ratibus impervia Thule.).'*
This argument, taking in the whole of what
is faid in the note as well as the text, is founded
pierely upon fuppofitiops^ one implied, and
the-