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Such are the round towers of Ireland. Now, what is their origin-what their design ?* In accordance with the principles insisted on in the preceding essays, we conceive that they are of Phoenician origin, and that consequently they are very ancient. Having already shewn that these isles were peopled, at least to a great degree, from Phoenicia, and that their manners and customs obtained in them, it is easy to conceive how buildings might be erected by them of a similar kind, and for similar purposes with those that were erected in the parent country. Now, it is a fact, that in Phoenicia there have been found buildings not a little resembling these. The authors of the "Ancient Universal History," in their account of the Phoenicians, speak of, and indeed have given us a plate of two of these, seen a little southward of the isle of Aradas, about ten yards distant from each other. "The one is in form a cylinder, crowned by a multilateral pyramid, and is in all 33 feet high including the pedestal, which is 10 feet high and 15 square. The other is a long cone, discontinued at about the third part of its height, and, instead of ending in a point, is wrought into a hemispherical form. This is its general construction. It stands upon a pedestal, six feet

* Should the author fail of giving satisfaction, it may disarm censure if he quote a remark of Higgins, in his "Celtic Druids :" "The object for which they were built has set all antiquaries at defiance."-P. 216, also P. xlvi.

high and sixteen feet six inches square, adorned at each angle with the figure of a lion in a sitting posture, pretty much defaced; though at best the sculpture of them appears to have been but bad. Under ground there are square chambers, of convenient height for a man, and long cells branching out therefrom, variously disposed, and of different lengths, wherein the dead bodies were deposited. These subterraneous chambers and cells are all cut out of the hard rock."* The connexion of such structures as these with the round towers of Ireland will perhaps appear to the reader, especially after reading the foregoing pages. And if, to such considerations, we add what is farther to be advanced on the design of such buildings, the probability, we presume, will appear still greater that they are of Phoenician origin.

We pass on, then, to consider their design. Many hypotheses have been advanced on this subject. Some think that they were purgatorial columns, to which criminals were raised for the ablution of their enormities; others, that they were intended for beacons-others for belfriesothers, again, think that they were designed for anchorites; and, with much greater probability, some that they were places of retreat in cases of invasion. But some of these hypotheses appear so unsatisfactory, that they scarcely need a formal

* Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 396.

refutation, and others will come into consideration when we treat of the affirmative of the question. The hypothesis of Mr. O'Brian is, that they "were specifically constructed for the twofold purpose of worshiping the sun and moon, as the authors of generation and vegetation;" and, from the nearer converse which their elevation afforded, of studying the revolutions and properties of the planetary orbs."* So far as this hypothesis supposes that they were erected for a sacred purpose, we concur in it; nor can we object to the idea that regard was had to the study of the revolutions and properties of the heavenly bodies: but we still think that, by the aid of those principles that have been insisted on in the preceding essays, and particularly from that most ancient record the Scriptures, additional light may be thrown upon these antiquities.

First, then, we conceive that they were erected for the purpose of religious worship and for religious assemblies. Our reasons for thinking so are these. The ancient Irish themselves, according to O'Brian, designated them Bail-toir, that is, the tower of Baal, or the sun, and the priest who attended them, "Aoi Bailtoir," or "superintendent of Baal's tower."+ Now, after what we have before advanced concerning the worship of Baal in Phoenicia, as transferred to Ireland, who will not

* O'Brian's Round Towers of Ireland, pp. 61, 62.
† O'Brian, p. 75.

see the connexion between such towers and religious worship? And, whereas it was customary among the heathen to connect dancing around the sacred place with their worship, it is remarkable that the phrase "turret dance" still obtains in Ireland, a phrase which signifies a dance in connexion with a tower, for the Latin word "turris" signifies a tower. There are also, it seems, "turrish-penances," which relate to religious circuits round the tower.*

Hence, also, for religious assemblies. It is a fact that churches and other religious foundations generally exist near them; which can easily be accounted for, if we suppose that, in order to facilitate the introduction of Christianity, the first preachers of Christ accommodated themselves to the prejudices and feelings of the people, by erecting these edifices on the spot where the people had been accustomed to gather together for worship; but not otherwise.† And the fact we may therefore use as an indirect, or presumptive argument at least, that the tower was a rallying point-a place of general assembly. We remark, again, Phoenicia was near to the Land of Israel; now, in that part of the country,

*"A particular movement, still in common use, called rinketempoil, or the temple-dance. Also turrish-penance—a religious circuit round a tower."-O'Brian.

In Ardmore there is one with a cross upon it.

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we read of a tower of the flock;"* and a thousand years before, of a "tower of Edar," which means the same. Now, what is meant by this first passage of Scripture? That Jerusalem was not only a strong hold of the daughter of Sion," as it immediately follows, but that there was the place of general assembly of all the males in the land three times a year for worship; and, since that people were called "sheep," and God their Shepherd, therefore this place of assembly was called a tower of the flock," in allusion to the custom of shepherds gathering their sheep together to the tower, as at the "tower of Edar." What, then, if the Phoenician shepherds, the Druidical priests, gathered their sheep-their people, around these towers? Perhaps, also, the chambers-for it appears there were chambers in them were the residences of these priests, as the chambers were in the sacred temple at Jerusalem.† Thus far, then, we have seen that the tower was called the tower of Baal, the object of worship in Phoenicia and in Ireland; that certain persons are

* Mic. iv. 8; Gen. xxxv. 21.

+ These chambers, it appears from O'Brian, were "most of them divided-either by rests or projecting stones." Now the sacred historian, speaking of the chambers in the Temple of Solomon, says, "he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house." Recollect that Hiram, who assisted Solomon, was a Phoenician. See 1 Kings, vi. 6; v. 18; vii. 13, 14, 40, &c.

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