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

2S4.
THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
*' fies Ocean : the fea betwixt Germany and Eng-
*' land has fome right to that title, but the
" channel between Ireland and Caledonia was
" never dignified with (o high a name" (p. 115)--
Muft: not the name, then, be equally too high
for the channel betwixt Caledonia and its ifles ?
And muft it not be infinitely too high for the
mere bays and lochs, that infinuate themfelves
into the land along one fide of the channel ?
But this is not the only contradiftion, in which
the prefent paflage has involved Mr. Macpherfon.
He is now fo entangled in the curious web which
he is conflrut^ing, that, at every motion to ex-
pedite and finilh the work, he is breaking fome
principal thread, and letting in deflruftion on
the whole. He has here advanced three fuppo-
fitions, That the lerna of Claudian means the
weftern ifles, That it means the weflern High-
lands, and That it means Strathern. Thefe are
obvioufly incompatible one with another. And
the contradidorinefs of the fuppofitions is a great
addition to the impropriety of them '.— "When Mr^
Macpherfon fuppofes the weflern ifles or High-
lands to be meant by lerna, he interprets Clau-
dian literally, as placing the whole for the whole.
But, when he fuppofes Strathern to be meant,
he underflands him figuratively, and makes a part
* So Sir George Mackenzie makes lerna to be Strathern;
jn p. 37 5i and in p. 410 all the northern Highlands as for sw
Invernefa,