THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND.
EVERYBODY who has heard of Ireland, through Irishmen, is aware that there are several antiquities in the " gem of the sea," whose objects, origin, and age, are concealed in the depths of time. Had they been constructed since the English conquest, some account of the circumstance, or at least some collateral evidence, would have been preserved ; fur many ages prior to that event, the country was apparently far too barbarous to have produced them; hence the conclusion to which the genuine Milesian comes, that the Green Isle, at some indefinitely distant period, was preemi- nent, as Mr. O'BRIEN phrases it, "in all the great essentials of life—in all its solid refinements and elegant utilities," whilst Britain, and even Europe, not excluding Greece, was sunk in the darkness of barbarism. or these antiquities, the Round Towers are amongst the most puzzling; or at least no feasible explanation of their origin and use has yet been given. In the hope of throwing some light upon the subject, the Royal Irish Academy " proposed a premium of a gold medal and fifty pounds to the author of an approved essay upon the subject." This advertisement was unknown to Mr. O'BRIEN. A full twelvemonth was allowed for the composition ; but at the stipulated period, though one of the treatises may have been better than the rest, some rather essential matters, it would appear, were altogether omitted,—namely, the "origin and uses and the architectural peculiarities of those ancient buildings." fresh advertisement was issued, in which three months were allowed to the authors to amend their essays, whilst fresh candidates were permitted to compete if they chose. Mr. O'BRIEN—though officially informed that the Academy " had made up their minds upon the theory," daunted at the shortness of the time allowed, and sus- pecting "that there was some management in the business "- " plunged into the discussion without further delay ; and day and night, in sorrow and in difficulties, he laboured until lie finished his essay by the appointed (lay." Something more than " manage- ment," according to Mr. O'BRIEN, then took place on the part of the Academy. At last, after upwards of six months had been consumed in deliberation, the highest premium was awarded to an employ C.! of the Academy and a member of the Council,— whilst Mr. O'BRIEN was fobbed off with a vote of twenty pounds. By which " minimum-re," he was not only deprived of the gold medal and thirty pounds, but also of an additional hundred pounds, given by Lord Cisssa: wont to the successful candidate. We should observe, that Mr. O'BRIEN assumes that his own essay was the best.
The author's persecutions did not, however, end here. The Council had engaged to publish the successful essay ; but they re- fused to publish Mr. O'BRIEN's simultaneously with the gold medal man's. Hereupon followed a long correspondence, num- bered as in the case of an affair of honour : and at last, in spite of Mr. O'BRIEN'S "adjuration of the Council (in a spirit of solemn self-composure), in the name of that Cod before whom they and I shall one (lay appear," they refused to publish his essay with ad- ditions, at all. Nay, " in violation of all honour," they retained his manuscript, in the hope of preventing the publication. But they mistook their man. He set to work again ; produced a better treatise ; and has enlightened the world by a di quisition which the Council of the Royal Irish Academy hoped to have hidden in an obscurity as impenetrable as the origin of the Round Towers was until their persecuted candidate took them in hand. To follow Mr. O'BRIEN step by step through his volume, would be difficult, on account of his defective arrangement, and the multi- tude and details of his proof's, as well as his rambling style. We will endeavour to give some notion of his theory. According to him, the celebrated religion of Bud had its origin in Persia, long before the age of Zoroaster. From Persia it was carried to India, and there corrupted by the Brahmins. The creed, in its pure and primary state, was a species of Deism : the object wor shipped was the principle of fecundity—the Venus, or, if you .please, the prcductive power, of LUCRETIUS. The visible deities were the Sunand Moon ; the tbriner representing the male, the latter the female. The temples erected to the honour of the Sun took the shape of the classical—or the Egyptian phallus—the chief type and symbol of the power worshipped. In Mr. O'BRIEN's view, the Fall of Man is allegorical. " When Adam delved and Eve span;. there might be no gentleman, but there might be plenty of people. The introduction of Evil arose not from the temptations of Satan, but from the soft delusions of Love. A similar view is taken of the Flood; excepting that our author's interpretation of the allegory is more obscure. He quotes, in- deed, and comments upon, the text that " Noah was a man per- fect in his generations, as well as upon several other passages; but the coinmentary will require another O'BRIEN to unfold the mystery. The naked reality of the Tower of Babel he admits ; but the confusion of tongues is to be attributed to a Round Tower, —which was the shape of the Babel erection. The religion of Bud was not confined to the regions enumerated : it was carried to Egypt,—whose Pyramids may be considered as a sort of Round Towers ; the sides of those enormous structures " facing the four cardinal points," and Mr. O'BRIEN not doubting but the four apertures at the top of the Irish Round Towers do the same. The faith—though corrupted and degenerated, and consisting chiefly in works—passed into Syria, and indeed over Asia. But Leta greater master than even O'BRIEN indicate the extent and nature of the corrupted worship.
" Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's sons; Peor his other name, when he enticed Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, To do hint wanton rites, which cost them wo.
Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged E'en to that hill of scandal, by the grove Of Moloch homicide ; lust hard by hate. With these came they, who front the bordering flood Of old Euphrates, to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Bailim and Ashtaroth, those male, These feminine.
With these in troop Came Ashtoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd Astarte, Queen of Heaven with crescent horns. To whose bright image nightly by the mcou Sidonian virgins paid their vows and soap;
In Sion also not unsung, where stood Her temple on the offensive mountain, built By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large,
Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul. Thammuz came next' behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summer's day ; While smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded. The love-tale Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch
Ezekir I saw." Paradise Lose, Book I.
This religion—or something like it—exists at the present day on the Western coast of Africa. The licentious rites of the Hinds* superstition are to be traced to the original Budhism, or Sabiau faith, but debased by a long lapse of ages, and by the wicked and corrupt practices of a dominant superstition, which strove, and but too successfully, to erase the true worship.
But how came Budhism into Ireland?—We proceed as well as we are able, and guided by Mr. O'BRIEN's torch of light, to un- veil the mystery.
As we have said already, though the original faith was in theory a unity, in practice two powers, or representatives of powers, were worshipped. In process of time, a schism took place; one party contending for the superior virtue (so to speak) of Buidins the other of Ashtaroth, in the propagation of life. The respective heresies induced a war; the advocates of gallantry triumphed; the upholders of the Sun were driven from Persia, and proceeded to Ireland. How they got there—what route they travelled—is not necessary to the author's design. " I surely cannot be ex- pected to waste labour upon such a trifle, which sinks into nothing against evidences of the actual fact." Here they erected the Round Towers—emblems of the &aline or male form of the great power, for whose honour they had fought and gone into exile; and established an empire abounding in the science, the arts, the learning of the East ; and whence it is possible that they disco- vered and colonized America,—for traces of Budhism, or some- thing like it, have been found amongst time Red Indians.
Such is the exposition for which the Royal Irish Academy scrupled not to vote a shabby twenty pounds. But what are the proofs of the theory ? We can only answer, that the arguments are spread over nearly five hundred octavo pages; that they are drawn from every various branch of human learning,—the ancient Irish, the ancient Classics, and the old and modern Oriental lite- rature, not to mention antiquities, Indian, Babylonian, Egyp- tian, and Celtic; and that they are sometimes more curious than delicate. For one rather irregular sylloglim, however, we will find room. It is the derivation of the word "Erin." Mr. O'BRAEN has been sayins. (what we have heard before) that Irish is very like Persian. Every one knows that Iran is the native name of Persia, or of a part of Persia. Upon that hint he speaks.
Thus far have Ireland and Persia kept company together, both equally re- joicing in the common name of Iran. But now, when we descend to particu- lars, this harmony separates. Ireland being an isle nil, surrounded on all sides by water—which Persia is not—it Wd3 necessary it should obtain a denomiva- tien expressive of this accident ; or, at all events, when the alteration was so easily formed as by the change of the final an into in—en vanilla; lore!, and in island—the transition was so natural as at once to recommend its propriety. Hence it is, that though we occasionally meet with Iran, as applied to this country, yet do we more frequently find rrin as its distinctive term; whereas the latter is never, by any chance, assigned to Persia, the former alone being its universal name. And this is all conformable to the closest logical argumenta- tion, which teaches that every species is contained in its genus, but that no genus is contained in its species ; Iris, therefore, which is the specific term, may also be called ben the generic, while Iran, except as in our instance, where the extension of both is identical, could never be called Irin : and so it happens that Ireland is indifferently called by the names of Iran or Irin, the latter alone marking its insider characteristic ; whereas Persia, not being so circumstanced, is mentioned only by the general form of Iran. To simplify this reasoning, I must repeat that Iran signifies the Sacred Land, and Ein, the Sacred Island; now every island is a land, but every land is nut an island. Persia, therefore, which is not an island, could not be called Irin ; whereas Ireland, which is, may as well be called one as the other. Iris, then, is the true, appropriate, characteristic, and specific denomina- tion belonging to this island ; and the words Ire, lire, and Erin, applied also thereto, are but vicious or dialectal modifications of this grand, original, and ramifying root. The import of this appellative having spread itself over the globe before Rome was ever known, under that name, as a city, and when Greece was but just be- ginning to peep into the light, the Pelasgi—who were partly Budhists, allied somewhat to them in religion, and still more akin in birth and endowments— conveyed, in conjunction with the Plurniciau merchants, to the early Greek in- habitants ; and they, by a very easy process, commuted kin to Erne, which is but a translation of the word trees, signifying sacred, and Kw, an island. " Opinions," says a commentator upon the history of the Assy- rian Empire, "opinions are here more numerous than facts.. "ihe observation may be applied to the Round Towers. But if we do not implicitly assent to Mr. O'BRIEN'S conclusions, it cannot be denied that he has produced a volume containing an astonishing number of curious arguments and facts on a very curious subject.
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