St. Brighid and her Times. By Christopher Irvine, M.A. (Hodges,
Figgis, and Co., Dublin. 2s. 6d. net.)—The upshot of Mr. Irvine's paper is that there was no such person as Brighid (commonly spelt Bridget). To this conclusion he is led by the proof of the permanence in Christian legend of Druidic influences. The sacred fire, the Druidic equivalent of the vestal hearth, the ignis aeternus which, according to Virgil, Aeneas carried from Troy to his new home in Italy, was represented by the name Brighid,—strictly the keeper of the caldron or fire, but identified with the fire or caldron itself. We have no wish to pronounce on these matters, except so far as to allow the general fact of the survival of this old Nature-worship in the 'popular faith. "Our Lady of the Fever" has her shrine outside Rome, just as the temple of Mefitis stood outside the walls of Cremona.
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