Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

Of the Scots. ^7
*' Scottifh tribes, nor has any one of the barba-
*' reus nations, all around to the very ocean,
*' heard of Mofes or the Prophets *."
C AM B D E N, Ufher, and feveral other eminent
critics, have quoted this palTage, as the language
of the pagan philofopher, without ever fufpedting
its authenticity. But Innes is pofitive that it is
Jerome's own invention. He fays, *' That this
" paiTage is not Porphyrius's, but Jerome's own,
*' this the epithet he gives to Britannia, oi fertilis
" provincia tyrannorum^ feeras to demonftrate,
*' For when Porphyrius, about A. D. 267. wrote
" the book againft the Chriflian religion to which
" St. Jerome alludes in that pafl'age, there had fcarce
" till then appeared from Britain any confiderable
*' tyrant^ or uiurper againft the empire : whereas,
" betwixt that year 267 and the year 412, when
" St. Jerome wrote his letter to Ctefiphont, there
" had rifen in Britain no lefs than feven tyrants or
" ufurpers." After Innes had enumerated thefe
tyrants, and obferved that four of them were co-
temporary with St. Jerome, he concludes, that
Porphyrius had no real concern with the paflage
now under confideration.
It will appear hereafter, that Innes had parti-
cular reafons of his own for afcribing this pafTage
to Jerome. Had he acknowledged with other
critics, that it belongs undoubtedly to Porphyrius,
he would have pulled down his fyftem with his
own hards. But w^tatever his motive may have
been for giving the words in queftion to the holy
* Neque enim Britannia, fertJlis provincia tyrannorum, et
Scoticx genres, ornnefqiie nfque ad OCeanuffl pef circuitcim bar-
barae nationes, K'oylen Piophetafque cogHOverant. Hieronym.
Epift. ad Ctefiphont.
father