Much detraction of Macpherson's work has been based on the translator's own letters and on his efforts in archæology. In a letter to Dr. Blair he remarked "that his Highland pride was alarmed at appearing to the world only as a translator." Again, in the preface to the edition of 1773, Macpherson wrote regarding improvements in his version: "Errors in diction might have been committed at twenty-four which the experience of a riper age may remove, and some exuberances in imagery may be restrained with advantage by a degree of judgment acquired in the progress of time." Upon these words Laing insisted that Macpherson claimed for himself the authorship of the Ossianic poems. Less prejudiced critics can take a more obvious meaning from them. In the same page with the latter extract Macpherson twice expressly alludes to himself as "the Translator." Had he been anything more than this he would certainly have used a more distinct means of making his merit known, since self-effacement was by no means a conspicuous trait of his character. Also, in his introduction to "Comala," Macpherson asserted that the Caracul referred to in that poem was the Caracalla of the Roman writers. Now, Gibbon has noted that this was a name given to Antoninus, the son of Severus, four years after his defeat by the Caledonians in 211
