The regal figures, which I promised, as belonging to theNubiantemple, and corresponding to theKnockmoyfrescoes, are the following:—
You will, furthermore, observe how that they all wear thephilibeg, like our crucified effigy at p. 296, and our war-god, Phearagh, at p. 138. Eachof them, also, is adorned with thecross, as the passport of their redemption: while the threedivinities, delineated in the Irish scenes, have these as their counterparts in the temple of Nubia.
Abbe Pluché states, that “the figures of those gods brought from Egypt into Phœnicia, wore on their heads leaves and branches, wings and globes, which,” he adds, “appeared ridiculous to those who did not comprehend the signification of these symbols, as happened to Cambyses, King of Persia, but these represented Isis, Osiris, and Horus.”
“In theGentleman’s Magazinefor November, 1742, is an account,” says Vallancey, “of two silver images, found under theruins of an old tower, whichhad raised various conjectures and speculations amongst the antiquaries; they were about three inches in height, representing men in armour, withvery high helmets on their heads, ruffs round their necks, and standing on a pedestal of silver, holding a small golden spear in their hands. The account is taken from the Dublin papers. The writer refers to Merrick’s translation of Tryphiodorus, an Egyptian, that composed a Greek poem on the destruction of Troy, a sequel to Homer’sIliad, to show that it was customary with the ancients, at the foundation of a fort or city, to consecrate such images to some titular guardians, and deposit them in a secret part of the building; where he also inserts a judicious exposition of a difficult text of Scripture on that subject.”
The above extract was indited long before the publication of those Nubian antiquities; and, consequently, when neither the contributor to the magazine, nor the quoter from its columns, had any knowledge of their existence. Its production, therefore, must be valuable here, as showing not only the connection of theidolswith theRound Tower ceremonial, but also that the helmets of theNubiangods had been adopted in the effigies of some of those amongst us.
I terminate my proofs of the primevalcrucifixion, by theunitedtestimonies of theBudhistsand theFree-Masons.
“Though the punishment of the cross,” says theAsiatic Researches, “be unknown to the Hindus, yet the followers of Buddha have some knowledge of it, when they represent DevaThot(that is, the godThot) crucified upon an instrument resembling across, according to the accounts of some travellers to Siam.”
“Christianity,” says Oliver, “or the system of salvation through the atonement of a crucified Mediator, was the main pillar of Freemasonry ever since the fall.”
Let me point your notice now to someconsequencesof that mysterious fact. I begin by asking—
How happened it, that, of all places in the world, Ireland was that which gave the readiest countenance, and the most cheering support, to the Gospel of Christ, on its first promulgation?
This question you will consider of no trivial tendency. It is, in itself, worth a thousand other arguments. To solve it, I must premise that, besides the many ancient appellatives, already given you, for this country, there was one, which characterised it, as anticipating that event?
Crioch-na-Fuineadhach[393]was this name. Its meaning is,the asylum of the expectants: or,the retreat of those looking forward.
To what, you ask?—To the consummation, I reply, of that prophecy, which was imparted to Israel through another source, saying, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, untilShilohcome.”[394]
Numerous intimations have, from time to time, been conveyed to man as harbingers of an event which was to crown their species with universal blessings. In the Puranas, it was prophesied, that “after three thousand and one hundred years of the Caliyuga are elapsed, will appear KingSaca, to remove wretchedness from the world.”[395]
I have given an abstract of the history of this remarkable personage at pp. 293 and 294, and shortly after, at p. 296, I presented you with the effigy of his crucifixion. As to the era of his appearance, as deducible from the Yugas, I shall confine myself to the opinion advanced by Mr. Davis, in theAsiatic Researches, vol. ix. p. 243, where he states: “It may further with confidence be inferred, thatMons. Anquetil du Perron’s conclusion, with respect to the late introduction of Yugas, which are the component parts of the Calpa, into the Hindu astronomy,is unfounded; and that the invention of those periods, and the application of them to computations by the Hindus, must be referred to an antiquity which has not yet been ascertained.”
In another age was promised another Redeemer; and of him I copy what Mr. Wilford transmits, as follows, viz.:—
“A thousand years before that event, the goddess Cali had foretold him that he would reign, or rather hisposterity, according to several learned commentators in the Dokhin, as mentioned by Major Mackenzie, till adivine child, born of a virgin, should put an end both to his life and kingdom, or to his dynasty, nearly in the words of Jacob, in Genesis,chap. xlix. ver. 10. The Hindu traditions concerning this wonderful child are collected in a treatise called theVicrama Chastra; or, History of Vicrama Ditya. This I have not been able to procure, though many learned pundits have repeated to me by heart whole pages from them. Yet I was unwilling to make use of their traditions till I found them in the large extracts made by the ingenious and indefatigable Major C. Mackenzie of the Madras establishment, and by him communicated to the Asiatic Society.”
In truth, it was to thecertaintyof thismanifestationthat the first couplet of an Arabic elegy, preserved by Mons. d’Herbelot in his account of Ibnuzaidun, a celebrated Andalusian poet, refers. In Roman letters, the lines run thus—
“Jekad heïn tenagikom dharmairnaJacdha alaïna alassa laula tassina.”
That is, “The time will soon come when you will deliver us from all our cares; the remedy is assured, provided we have a little patience.”
The learned President of the Society of Bengal, unaware of thedriftof this beautiful stanza, and without ever having so much asseenthe original whence it was quoted, offers to alter its import to the following, viz.: “When our bosoms impart their secrets to you, anguish would almost fix our doom, if we were not mutually to console ourselves!” And the only reason he assigns for this novel interpretation is, thattwoindividuals,neither of whom, he himself admits, knew anything about its meaning, happened, or rather pretended, to put it for himdifferentlyinto Arabic words!
On the pillar at Buddal, this emanation of the godhead is thus characterised: “He did not exultover the ignorant and ill-favoured: but spent his riches among the needy: in short, he was the wonder of all good men.”[396]Isaiah’s prophecy of thefutureMessiah would appear averbatim, though morepoeticaltranscript of this inscription, viz.: “He shall not cry, nor lift up; nor cause His voice to be heard in the street; a bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”[397]
At p. 110 of this volume, I have promised to explain the origin of the wordEleusinian, as applied to the celebration of certain religious rites. I have very little doubt but that, when reading the declaration, the reader looked upon its offer as, to say the least, gratuitous—satisfied that the term could have no possible other meaning, than as an adjective formed from the substantiveEleusis!
Well, the rashness of that judgment I very freely forgive; and repay it now by the verification of my contract.
Eleusis, theplace, andEleusinian, as descriptive of themysteriestherein solemnised, were both denominated in honour of thatAdvent, which all nations awaited; and the fulfilment of which, in the person of one of theBudhas, made him to be recognised on one occasion as the “source of thefaithof the three epochs of the world.”[398]
I have already redeemed the character of those ceremonies from the sinister imputations which attached to theirsecrecy. An apprehension that their publication would subvert the popular belief, or a supposed indelicacy in their tenour, were themildestconstructions which theuninitiatedwould afford them. Though secure in the sufficiency of my former proofs, I cannot avoid taking support from an article in a very talented publication of our day, in which the writer,wholly uninstructed, while he evidently is, as to the natureof those celebrations, yet confirms the fact of their worth and their purity.
“From the whole concurrent testimony of ancient history,” says he, “we must believe that the Eleusinian mysteries were used for good purposes, for there is not an instance on record that the honour of an initiation was ever obtained by a very bad man. The hierophants—the higher priests of the order—were always exemplary in their morals, and became sanctified in the eyes of the people. The high-priesthood of this order in Greece was continued in one family, the Eumolpidæ, for ages. In this they resembled both the Egyptians and the Jews.
“The Eleusinian mysteries in Rome took another form, and were called the rites of Bona Dea; but she was the same Ceres that was worshipped in Greece.All the distinguished Roman authors speak of these rites and in terms of profound respect. Horace denounces the wretch who should attempt to reveal the secrets of these rites; Virgil mentions these mysteries with great respect; and Cicero alludes to them with a greater reverence than either of the poets we have named. Both the Greeks and Romans punished any insult offered to these mysteries with the most persevering vindictiveness. Alcibiades was charged with insulting these religious rites; and although the proof of his offence was quite doubtful, yet he suffered for it for years in exile and misery; and it must be allowed that he was the most popular man of his age.”[399]
Analogous to these were the solemnities at Carthage, designated by the name ofPhiditia; and the import of which, as well in term as in substance, has been no less a riddle to antiquarians, than was the sanctified commemoration which it disguises. During the interval of their celebration, the youths received lessons from their elders of the state, as to the regulation of their conduct in after life; and the lustre of truth, and the comeliness of virtue, as they shone forth inBudha(which solves the mystery of the name), were the invariableethicsthey propounded.
Public feasts were the scene for the delivery of those discourses. They found their way also to Rome, but thespirituality of Redemptionnot going hand-in-hand with itsdoctrine, or not duly comprehended, if accompanying, thejoyousnessofhope, was there sunk into thelicentiousnessofenjoyment, and the innocence of mirth and of moral hilarity wassuperseded by the uproar of riot and of vice!Such were the Saturnalia.
How different was their celebration in our “Sacred Ireland!” The very letters of the epithet, by which our forefathers had solemnised them, show the spirituality of purpose which actuated their zeal.Nullogwas that epithet—it is compounded ofnua,new; andlog(for bullog), abelly, meaningregeneration, or the putting aside of the old leaven of sin, and the assumption of the new investiture of righteousness, by justification.
As everything, however, in their religious procedure was transacted by symbols, so, in this instance, they did not content themselves with theinner consciousnessof anew birth,[400]but the most go through the outer form of it by typification; and for this end it was that they excavated thoseaperturesin the bodies of rocks, which I have noticed inpage 314, as calling forth, from ignorance, the animadversion of thedevil’s yonies, in order that, bypassing themselves through them, they might represent the condition of one issuing, through the womb, to a new scope of life.[401]
A nobler method of symbolisation, and confined solely to theinitiated, was that which characterised the construction of their subterranean temples. Here the sublimity of their worship breaks out in all thegrandeur and the majesty of awe.[402]The narrowness of the entrance, never larger than the girth of the ordinary human body, pourtrayed, as well thecircular passagein their regeneratingtype,[403]as thecircumventionof temptation by which the faithful are ever beset;[404]whilethe modelof thecross, which regulates their architecture withinside, attests the mystery and the form of their master’s death.
The Mithratic temple, at New Grange, is exactly so constructed. After squeezing yourself, with much labour, through a longemblematicgallery, you arrive at acircular room, or rather anirregular polygon or octagon;[405]whence, at measured intervals, three otherapartments diverge, forming, with the inleading gut, a perfectcross; and presenting, altogether, to a susceptible mind,the most solemn combination of symbolical mysteries![406]
I wonder why do not ourmodernsconfer thesesubterraneous cruciformedifices upon the industry of the early Christians, as they have striven to claim for them thecorrespondingstructuresabove ground! and without half the probability of success! For if it may be stated, that thecrucifixionsupon thetowerswere aninterpolation, with a view toChristianisewhat before was devoted toPaganism,no one, at all events, would maintain that themonkshad gone down into the bowels of the earth, and after ejecting the inmates of oldAlma Mater, converted their tabernacles into a magical cross!
Nay, a greater difficulty would still attach to this adventure. ThePagodas[407]of Benares and Mathura, the two principal ones in all India, arecruciformlybuilt! and, in order to make both worlds harmonise, theadvocatesfor the monks, or rather theirbeliers, would have to transport their mechanics to those regions also, and turn upside down, and sideways, and every way, whatever was the shape of the originalstructures, until they moulded them at last into this mysterious cross!
Some blame, however, would seem attachable to thesuperintendentsof this vision: and it is that, while imprinting thismarkover the head of the principal figure in the cave, or Mithratic temple, at Elephanta,[408]they neglected to demolish theLingam, appertaining to the previous worship; and which actually presents itself but a little from it in the front!
To be grave. There was nothing morenaturalthan that those different symbols should be thus united. I have shown that in the various copies of our annals, theRound Towers, or overground temples, are designated by the name ofFidh-nemead, the meaning of which I have elucidated to be, theconsecrated Lingams: theMithratic caves, or underground temples, theircorrespondents, it was to be expected, should be known by asuitabledenomination; and, accordingly, you will find this very one at New Grange mentioned in theChronicon Scotorumby the title ofFiodh Aongusa; that is, theMysterious CavernofBuddh; while thecrucifixionsupon theformer, and thecruciform shapeof thelatter, are the reverential memorials of his atoning dissolution.
The mysteries celebrated within the recesses of those caverns were precisely of that character which are calledFreemasonic, orCabiric. The signification of this latter epithet is, as to written letters, a desideratum. Selden has missed it; so has Origen and Sophocles. Strabo, too, and Montfaucon, have been equally astray. Hyde was the only one who had anyideaof itscomposition, when he declared “it was aPersian wordsomewhat altered fromGabri, orGuebri, and signifying fire-worshippers.”
It is true thatGabrinow stands forfire-worshippers, but that is only because that they assumed to themselves this title, which belonged to another order of their ancestors. The word is derived fromgabh, “a smith,” andir, “sacred,” meaning thesacred smiths; andCabiribeing only a perversion of it is, of course, in substance, of the very same import.
MountCaucasus,[409]also, which still, in our language, retains its original pronunciation, ofGaba-casan, or the Smith’s Path, was named from the same root; nor is the tradition of thereasonaltogether obliterated from those who dwell beside it, if we may judge from a ceremony described by a recent traveller, as performed by them, as follows:—
“The original founders of the Tartarian Mongolian Scythians, called Cajan and Docos, got embarrassed amongst those mountains, then uninhabited.After a sojourn there of 450 years, having become so numerous as to require other settlements, they were at a loss to find a passage through the mountains, when asmith, pointing out to them a place very rich in iron ore, advised them to make great fires there, by which means the ore melted, and a broad passage was opened for them. In commemoration of which famous march, the Mongols to this day celebrate an annual feast, and observe the ceremony of heating a piece of iron red hot, on which the Ceann (that is, the chief) strikes one blow with a hammer, and all the persons of quality do the same after him.”
I shall close this chapter by the description given of the destruction of Cambyses’s army in the Nubian desert,after the insults offered by him to the Cabiri priests.
“Gnomes, o’er the waste, you led your myriad powers,Climb’d on the whirls, and aim’d the flinty showers;Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;Wave over wave the driving desert swims,Burst o’er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs;Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,Hosts march o’er hosts, and nations nations crush:Wheeling in air, the winged islands fall—And one great sandy ocean covers all.”[410]
On the east side of the river Shannon, about ten miles distant from Athlone, in the barony of Garrycastle, and King’s County, is situated theSanctuaryof Clonmacnoise. Within the narrow limits of two Irish acres, are here condensed morereligiousruins, of antiquarian value, than are to be found, perhaps, in a similar space in any other quarter of the habitable world.
Nine churches, built respectively by the individuals whose names they bear, namely: (1) that of Macarthy More; (2) that of Melaghlin; (3) that of MacDermott; (4) that of Hiorphan; (5) that of Kieran; (6) that of Gawney; (7) that of O’Kelly; and (8) that of O’Connor;—independently of thecathedral,—here moulder, in kindred mortality, with the ashes of nobles, of princes, and of kings, entombed beneath their walls; and who, at feud, mayhap, in life, are now content to sleep beside each other, “their warfare o’er,” in the levelling indistinction of death.
Your curiosity is, no doubt, excited to know how so circumscribed a little spot could have been chosen as the nucleus of such ecclesiastical ambition? The answer is found in the circumstance of this havingbeen one of the strongholds ofBudhism, in the days of its corruscations, which made it now be singled out, in common with other places memorable for that creed, as the appropriate locality for Christian superincumbency.
Two Round Towers,the chief object of emulation, are, as you may have supposed, here to be encountered: andthese are the very ones, which the reader may recollect have been alluded to atp. 38, as ridiculously claimed by Montmorency forChristian—because, forsooth, in the vagueness of popular titles, they arerecentlydistinguished by the names ofMacCarthyandO’Rourke!
TheEastern columns, denominated afterPompey[411]andCleopatra,[412]have been equally productive of historical mistakes; until, at last, it has appeared that those celebrated lovers have had no more to do with such erections, than have had theO’RourkesorMacCarthyswith ourRound Towers!
Here also arethree crossesbelonging to the same religion, tooneof which only shall I now direct your observation. It is fifteen feet high, composed of a single stone, and sculptured with imagery of the most elegant execution.
The devices upon this sculpture are such as you would have expected from theauthors of theAllegory of the Paradisiacal Fall: and here, accordingly, it presents itself, just as inlanguagethey had clothed it, in all the mysteriousness of the figurativetree.
Immediately over the equestrian and chariot sports, which decorate the pedestal, you see Adam and Eve conversing at each side of thissymbolof their dearly-boughtknowledge! Farther up are other emblems of mythological allusion: while, in the centre above, you observe aCabirpriest, alias, aFreemason, holding the implements of his craft—a high honour—inhis hand;[413]and encompassed by a retinue of several more persons, all in the glow of joy!
The other sides, though less complex, are not less graceful, nor less significant, than the two which I have introduced. In them, also, everything bears reference to theBudhistceremonial. Nor are themouldingsand theflowerings, thenetworks, and other ornaments which figure upon them, theleast essentialconstituent of that fruitful code,[414]—while the personation of adog,—an invariable accompaniment, as it is also amongst the sculptures at Persepolis, and other places in the East,—would, in itself be sufficient to fix the appropriation of those crosses, as that animal can have no possible relation to Christianity, whereas, by the Tuath-de-danaans, it was accountedsacred, and its maintenance enjoined by the ordinances of the state, as it is still in the Zend books, which remain after Zoroaster.
To Clondalkin Tower, represented at p. 101, there belongs also a stone cross, and bearing its own history upon itsTuath-de-danaancountenance. In Armagh is another. I cannot afford time to point out any more, but that atFinglasis too remarkable to be quite neglected.
Every body is acquainted with the legendary taleofSt. Patrick having banished all venomous reptiles from thisisland. Now, I am very willing, as has been shown, to give this apostle all the credit which he deserves; but I am a chronicler oftruth, and from me he shall have no romances. Solinus, who flourishedA.D.190, that is, above two centuries before St. Patrick was born, has noticed the phenomenon of there being no vipers here. Isidore has repeated it in the seventh century; as has Bede in the eighth; and, in the ninth, Donatus, the famous bishop of Fesula. This exemption, therefore, cannot be attributable to St. Patrick, whose honour would be better consulted by his religious admirers in confining themselves tofacts, which are numerous enough, than in shocking credibility by theirpious frauds.
As to thelocalphenomenon, to which you perceivehecan have no pretensions, I cannot resist bestowing upon it a passing observation. Bede, I think, has gone so far as to say that not only are there no snakes to be found in Ireland, but that they would not live, if imported: nay, that, when brought within sight of the shore, they expire! I should like to see this ascertained; if the fact be such, then the question is solved, the air or the soil is the cause.
But if the case be otherwise, then must we ascribe it to somehumaninstrumentality; and, as there occur various texts in Scripture, allusive, it would seem, to a very prevailing opinion in theEast, as to the manageableness of that species, by the power of charms,—such as, “I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed” (Jer. viii. 17); and “the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely” (Ps. lvii. 4, 5);—andas our Tuath-de-danaans, who were an Eastern people, are recorded by all our early ecclesiastical writers, and with no view to encomium, as so eminent for incantations, that the island seemed, during their sway, to have been one continuation of enchantment, it is past doubt, that, if practicable by man’s efficacy at all, the merit of extinction belongs solely to them. And it is well worth notice, that the island of Crete, where a colony of them also had settled, is said to be gifted with a similar exemption. “The professed snake-catchers in India,” says Johnson, “are a low caste of Hindoos, wonderfully clever in catching snakes, as well as in practising the art of legerdemain; they pretend to draw them from their holes by a song,and by an instrument resembling an Irish bagpipe, on which they play a plaintive tune.”[415]
Everylegend, however, is founded uponreality, and I will unfold to you from what has Joceline concoctedthis about St. Patrick. All thecrossesof the Tuath-de-danaans hadsnakesengraved upon them. Look back at that at Killcullen,[416]and you will see them there still, and more plainly, by and by, upon that at Kells. These to the Irish were objects of reverence, because of thepassionswhich they symbolised; and accordingly the Saint, in order to obviate the recurrence of such contemplations, effaced them, when practicable, from off the stones.[417]
The same precisely was the course, but with a less hallowed intention, which the Moslems had pursued in the dissemination of their creed. “Whenever,” says Archer, “these figures were introduced, the fanatic Moslem had hammered away all those within his reach; and when this process was too slow for the work of demolition, another mode of obliteration was requisite. Whole compartments of sculpture were plastered over to hide the profane imagery! In clearing away the rubbish, to bring these beautiful remains to light, the engineer stumbled on a long frieze, part of which had had the destroying mallet passed over it; but this method of despatch was not active enough, and that portion which had escaped violence, had been plastered over with a composition of the colour of the stone.”[418]
We read also in the Puranas, as an historical circumstance, that the wholeserpentrace had been destroyed by Janamijaya, the son of Parieshit, which, in truth, only implies, as the talented professor of Sanscrit in Oxford University has already remarked, “the subversion of the local and originalsuperstition, and the erection of the system of the Vedas upon its ruins.”
St. Patrick, in like manner, having established Christianityhere, in supercedence of a religion, the most prominent symbols of which weresnakes,cockatrices, andserpents, may be truly said to haveextirpatedtheir race from the country, but, as you see, in an acceptation heretofore unexplained.
Thestatementgiven by Major Archer of thesymbolic representationsupon one of the Indian temples, as well as the particulars of itsfate, are so perfectly in unison with what I have been describing, that I must be excused if I give it a place here.
“Reached Burwah-Saugor,” says he. “Immediately on the right is a Hindoo temple, which I think one of the rarest sights, on the score of architecture and sculpture, which have gratified our curiosity. The work of the chisel would have immortalised the artist had he lived in the present day. I have never seen its execution rivalled, although tolerably conversant with similar objects of art. The elegance of design—the arrangement of the figures, which were too numerous to be computed—the position of them—the sharp and bold relief—and the elaborate ornaments offoliageandanimals, render it one of themost remarkable monumentsof art it is possible to conceive. There are compartments on the lintels of the doors and the entablature, four deep;figures of the subordinate deities in the voluminous code of Brahma,symbols of their attributes,sacred utensils, andanimals. Two vases are on the threshold, which, for shape and execution, would compete the palm of excellence with Grecian art.Wreaths of snakes, and groups ofmenandwomen, are on thecolumns,which also havetheirornaments, and are well proportioned.
“I could not resist a second visit to this edifice, which, at the risk of appearing opinionative, I can seriously aver, I never saw equalled for richness and taste; but the hand of intolerant bigotry has marred the work of fair proportion. The fanatical Moslems, who overran the country in the time of Acbar, broke and defaced every image they saw; and, with few exceptions, the head of every figure, of any size or importance, has been demolished; and nothing remains but relics, which attest the advance of the arts at the time the structure was reared.”
The effects of fanaticism are the same in all ages. It desecrates alike human and divine laws. St. Patrick was no fanatic; and accordingly, inhiscourse, what he could not himself comprehend, he was resolved, at all events, to have respected. Those crosses, therefore, which had previously been looked upon with an eye of veneration,though the cause had long ceased to be transmitted, he literallyChristianised, by removing the sculpture; and thus were they made, in the ritual of the new religion, as hallowedly expressive as they were ever before.
Precisely similar was the system pursued by the missionaries in India.
“The island of Salsette,” says Captain Head, “abounds in mythological antiquities and pagan temples—two gigantic figures of Buddha, near twenty feet high, of complete preservation, which they owe to the zeal of the Portuguese, who painted them red, and converted the place they ornamented to a Catholic chapel.”
The Pantheon at Rome was new modelled in thesame manner. In a word, as Grotius has before affirmed, “infinite appropriations have been made.”
But, independently of this conversion, the conformity itself between the Christian and the Budhist religion was so great that the Christians, who rounded the Cape of Good Hope with Vasco de Gama, performed their devotions in an Indian temple, on the shores of Hindustan! Nay, “in many parts of the peninsula,” say theAsiatic Researches, “Christians are called, and considered as followers of Buddha, and their divine legislator, whom they confound with the apostle of India, is declared to be a form of Buddha, both by the followers of Brahma and those of Siva; and the information I had received on that subject is confirmed by F. Paulino.”
It was not so with those who made religion a trade, and only the auxiliary password to their selfish aggrandisement! When the “abomination of desolation”[419]swept over this country, and strewed the verdure of its surface with the indiscriminate fragments of cathedrals, of castles, and of towers, the crosses but as little escaped the scourge!
Having had occasion to pass through Finglas, on their march to the siege of Drogheda, and fancying the cross which stood there to have beennecessarilythe erection of obnoxiousRomanism, they gave it aniconoclastblow, which broke its shaft into two! Thus decapitated, it fell. But the citizens, wishing to avoid further profanation, soon as ever the army evacuated the town, took the disjointed relic and buried it very decorously within the confines of the churchyard!
Here it remained, in consecrated interment, untilthe beginning of the year 1816, when an old man of the parish, recounting anecdotes of bygone times, mentioned amongst others, the particulars of this tradition, and excited some curiosity by the narrative.
The Rev. Robert Walsh was then curate of Finglas, and this mysterious history having reached his ears, he determined forthwith to ascertain its evidences. His first step was to see the chronicler himself.—This personage’s name was Jack White. Jack, who was himself well stricken in years, told him that hehad learned, a long while ago, from his father, who was then himself rather elderly, that he had been shown by his still older grandfather the identical spot where the cross had been concealed, and could point it out now to anyone with certainty and preciseness.
The proposal was accepted; workmen were employed; and, after considerable perseverance, the cross wasexhumed, its partsreunitedby iron cramps, andre-erected, as opposite, within a short distance of the scene of its subterranean slumbers, as if in renascent triumph over the destroyer!
“Let such approach this consecrated landAnd pass in peace along the magic waste:But spare its relics—let no busy handDeface the scene, already how defaced!Not for such purpose were those altars placed:Revere the remnants nations once revered;So may our country’s name be undisgraced,So may’st thou prosper where thy youth was reared,By every honest joy of love and life endeared.”[420]
It will be borne in mind that everything hitherto advanced on the various topics which we have been discussing, was the sheer result of internal reasoning and of personal circumspection—that, wherever extrinsic aid was brought forward in support of this unbeaten track, it was uniformly in the shape ofconclusionsdeduced from the premises of reluctant witnesses. I rejoice, with delight unspeakable, that I have it at last in my power to range myself side by side with an author whose testimony in this matter must be considered decisive, but which, however, by some strange aberration of intellect, has never before been understood!
Cormac,[421]the celebrated bishop of Cashel, and one of the first scholars who ever flourished in any country, when defining the Round Towers in hisGlossary of the Irish Language, under the name ofGaill[422]says, that they were “Cartha cloacha is aire bearor gall desucder Fo bith ro ceata suighedseat en Eire,”—that is, stone-built monuments within which noble judges used to enclose vases containing the relics of Fo (i.e.Buddh), and of which they had erected hundreds throughout Ireland!
Knowing that the CeyloneseDagobs, a name which literally signifieshouses of relics, were appurtenances of Budhism, I intreated of a very intelligent native of that island, who attended the Vihara, at Exeter Hall, some time ago, that he would favour me with a written outline of his views of those structures. After a few days, he very civilly obliged me with the following:—
“Travellers to the Eastern countries often have their notice attracted by numerous buildings of a singular form and enormous sizes, both in ruins and in preserved states, about the origin and objects of which many inquiries have been made, and various conclusions drawn. These are monuments raised in ancient times to the memory of deified persons, and calledChaityas, to which places devotees used to resort for meditation, especially those who had any particular veneration for the deceased, whose relics are supposed to be deposited within, and on whose virtues they quietly reflect, availing themselves of the solitude of such places; and if in their own imaginations the personages are deified, they make offerings of lamplight, etc.
“In exploring the ruins of these pyramids, the inside of the globes are found to contain loose earth, merely filled up after the arches had been raised; in such loose earth are found ancient coins of various metals, supposed to be thrown in, in token of respect or veneration, whilst building; but in the very centre of the globe is always found a square well, paved with bricks, and the mouths covered by hewn granite, borne on granite supporters, standing in the four corners of the square (sometimes triangular). In this well, if the monument of a king (and if not robbed byancient invaders), will be found the urn containing the relics of the deceased, and treasure to a considerable worth. Sometimes there may be discovered a piece of beaten gold, or other metal, with engravings, mentioning the name and other circumstances of the deceased. If a Buddhist king, idols of Buddha might be found in it—but in others, sometimes earthen or metallic lamps, and heads ofcobra de capellas.
“In similar monuments, erected for the relics of Buddha, are three different compartments or depositories; one in the bottom of the foundation, one in the heart of the globe, and one at the top of the globe within the column. This column always has its basis upon the granite covering of the well. In monuments of this description are supposed to be much buried treasure, especially in the foundations. The Paly book,Toopahwanse, gives account of the distribution of the Buddha’s relics to the different parts of the world, and the erection of such monuments over them.
“Monuments of eminent Buddhist high priests are sometimes erected very high, but no treasure is to be expected in them, excepting sometimes books engraved on metal; but the tomb of the poorest prince is never without (at least in models) a golden crown, a sword of the same metal, a pair of metallic shoes, and a similar parasol.
“Besides having learnt from tradition and ancient documents, the writer has seen the discovery of the tomb of a prince, in which these articles were found, with a plate of gold, stating the name of the prince, his age, death, etc., which he had the pleasure totranscribe; the characters were in a different form from those now used in the same language, and hardly intelligible.
“The writer had also the pleasure of exploring the ruins of a very lofty Dagob that stood opposite to the establishment of the Church Missionaries in Ceylon. It was found to have been the tomb of a monarch, and had the appearance of having been robbed of the wealth it very likely contained, upwards of a century ago, as the trees that were growing on it indicated. A large quantity of ancient coins, and metal of different kinds, melted into various shapes (perhaps with burning of the corpse), were, however, collected.
“Ceylon contains many ancient pyramids of the kind in a preserved state, and protected by the people, which are supposed to contain much wealth, but the superstitious do not dare to explore, and others fear the laws, which will permit violence to no man’s feelings.”[423]
Having before shown how that the religion of the ancients was interwoven with their funeral observances, this ocular testimony was alone requisite to gain credence for my proofs. I can still further adduce the authority of Dr. Hurd,[424]to show that the Gaurs of India, to this day, make use of theRound Towers[425]in their neighbourhood as places of burial, lifting up the dead bodies to the elevated door by means of ladders and pulleys. None of those three writers have attempted anything more than astatement of the actualities, therefore will I be excused if, in addition to what has been already detailed, I observe that, sublime and philosophic as was the intent of thephallicconfiguration of those edifices, applied toreligion, it was incomparably more so, considered in reference tosepulture; for while, in the former, it merely typified the progress ofgenerationandvitality, in the latter it suggested the more ennobling hope of a futurerenascenceand aresurrection.
That the reader, now aware of the “secret” which directed the form and elevation of our Sabian Towers, should not be surprised at the affinity which I have before pointed out between them and the two “pillars” which stood at the door of Solomon’s temple,[426]I shall tell him that the whole internal construction of this latter edifice, as well as those outer and partial ornaments, bore direct relation to the anatomical organism of man himself.
To instance only the most prominent of those analogies, you will find the “holy” and the “most holy” bear the same relation to each other, as the cerebrum and cerebellum of the human mechanism. Nor need this at all be wondered at, seeing that, from the very faintest reflection, it must suggest itself to the most indolent that the divine ingenuity most prominently shines forth in the human anatomy; and that, therefore, from the exalted sentiments which this is calculated to inspire of the Godhead, “the noblest study of mankind is man.”[427]
Viewing it in this light, and coupling it with that piety which is known to have animated the bosom of David’s anointed son, I cannot pass on without participating in that sublime exclamation, which bespoke at once his gratitude and his humility, after the consummation of his mighty task. “But will God,” said he, “indeed dwell on earth! Behold! the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house that I have builded!”[428]
Now to theerafor the erection of our Round Towers. “As they have neither dates nor inscriptions,” say Sir John Ware, “and as history is silent on that head, it cannot be expected that I should point out the time when they were erected in this country.”[429]A very cheap way, certainly, of getting over a difficulty! The same was the mode adopted by him, and with equal candour, a few pages earlier, as to the development of theirdestination, when he says: “I confess it is much easier to combat andoverthroweverything that has been hitherto advanced by writers in favour of theDanish claimto these monuments of antiquity and theusesof them, than tosubstitute anything solid and satisfactory in their room.”[430]But inasmuch as the latter problem has been solved, one is led to conclude that the obstacles to the former are but imaginary also.
To begin then. Camden, speaking of them, in the thirteenth century, says he believes them to have been erected in the seventh, but does not know by whom! But I put it to any rational thinker to say whether, if they had been a creation of the seventh century, it would be possible for a writer of the thirteenth to have been ignorant of their origin, and that too at a time whentraditionwas universal? and every father made it a point to instil into his son the events and circumstances that happened in his own day? This writer’s testimony is sufficient, at all events, to show that they existed in the seventh century.
Bishop Cormac, we have seen before, has recorded them as objects of antiquity in his own time; and this being, at the latest, within the ninth century, they must have had existence before the seventh; else they could not well be deemedancienttwo centuries after.
The Ulster annals record the destruction of fifty-seven of them by an earthquake,A.D.448; they must, therefore, have existed before that century also. But the Royal Irish Academy sayno; because that tradition connects a person called theGoban Saer, and “the historical notices relative to whomhave been collected into Mr. Petrie’s essay ... with the erection of this (the Antrim Tower), as well as others in the north of Ireland!”[431]As every notice, therefore, respecting so important a character must be eagerly sought after, I shall take leave to transcribe what the same high authority tells us of him, in the following words, namely:—
“I have not learned the particular period at which he flourished, but tradition says that he was superior to all his contemporaries in the art of building; even in that dark age when so little communication existed between countries not so remotely situated, his fame extended to distant lands. A British prince, whose possessions were very extensive, and who felt ambitious of erecting a splendid palace to be his regal residence, hearing of the high attainments of the Goban Saer in his sublime science, invited him to court, and by princely gifts and magnificent promises induced him to build a structure, the splendour of which excelled that of all the palaces in the world. But the consummate skill of the artist had nearly cost him his life, for the prince, struck with the matchless beauty of the palace, was determined that it should stand unrivalled on the earth, by putting the architect to death, who alone was capable of constructing such another, after the moment the building received the finishing touches of his skilful hand.
“This celebrated individual had a son, who was grown up to man’s estate; and anxious that this only child should possess, in marriage, a young woman of sound sense and ready wit, he cared little for the factitious distinctions of birth or fortune, if he found herrich in the gifts of heaven. Having killed a sheep, he sent the young man to sell the skin at the next market town, with this singular injunction, that he should bring homethe skin and its priceat his return. The lad was always accustomed to bow to his father’s superior wisdom, and on this occasion did not stop to question the good sense of his commands, but bent his way to town. In these primitive times it was not unusual to see persons of the highest rank engaged in menial employments, so the townsfolk were less surprised to see the young Goban expose a sheep-skin for sale, than at the absurdity of the term, ‘the skin and the price of it.’ He could find no chapman, or rather chapwoman (to coin a term), for it was women engaged in domestic business that usually purchased such skins for the wool. A young woman at last accosted him, and upon hearing the terms of sale, after pondering a moment agreed to the bargain. She took him to her house, and having stripped off all the wool, returned him the bare skin, and the price for which the young man stipulated. Upon reaching home, he returnedthe skin and its valueto his father, who learning that a young woman became the purchaser, entertained so high an opinion of her talents, that in a few days she became the wife of his son, and sole mistress of Rath Goban.
“Some time after this marriage, and towards the period to which we before referred, when the Goban Saer and his son were setting off, at the invitation of the British prince, to erect his superb palace, this young woman exhibited considerable abilities, and the keenness of her expressions, and the brilliancy of her wit, far outdid, on many occasions, the acumen of the Goban Saer himself; she now cautioned him,when his old father, who did not, like modern architects, Bianconi it along macadamised roads, got tired from the length of the journey,to shorten the road; and, secondly, not to sleep a third night in any house without securing the interest ofa domestic female friend. The travellers pursued their way, and after some weary walking over flinty roads, and through intricate passages, the strength of the elder Goban yielded to the fatigue of the journey. The dutiful son would gladlyshorten the roadfor the wayworn senior, but felt himself unequal to the task. On acquainting his father with the conjugal precept, the old man unravelled the mystery by bidding him commence some strange legend of romance, whose delightful periods would beguile fatigue and pain into charmed attention. Irishmen, I believe, are the cleverest in Europe at ‘throwing it over’ females in foreign places, and it is pretty likely that the younger Goban did not disobey the second precept of his beloved wife. On the second night of their arrival at the king’s court, he found in the person of a female of very high rank (some say she was the king’s daughter), a friend who gave her confiding heart to all the dear delights that love and this Irish experimentalist could bestow. As the building proceeded under the skilful superintendence of the elder Goban, the son acquaints him with the progress of his love, and the ardent attachment of the lady. The cautious old man bade him beware of one capable of such violent passion, and take care lest her jealousy or caprice might not be equally ungovernable, and display more fearful effects. To discover her temper, the father ordered him to sprinkle her face with water as he washed himself in the morning—that if she received theaspersion with a smile, her love was disinterested, and her temper mild; but if she frowned darkly, her love was lust, and her anger formidable. The young man playfully sprinkled the crystal drops on the face of his lover—she smiled gently—and the young Goban rested calmly on that tender bosom, where true love and pitying mildness bore equal sway.
“The wisdom of the Goban Saer and his sapient daughter-in-law was soon manifested; for, as the building approached its completion, his lady-love communicated to the young man the fearful intelligence that the king was resolved, by putting them to death when the work was concluded, that they should erect no other such building, and, by that means, to enjoy the unrivalled fame of possessing the most splendid palace in the world. These tidings fell heavily on the ear of the Goban Saer, who saw the strong necessity of circumventing this base treachery with all his skill. In an interview with his majesty, he acquaints him that the building was being completed; and that its beauty exceeded everything of the kind he had done before, but that it could not be finished without a certain instrument which he unfortunately left at home, and he requested his royal permission to return for it. The king would by no means consent to the Goban Saer’s departure; but anxious to have the edifice completed, he was willing to send a trusty messenger into Ireland for that instrument upon which the finishing of the royal edifice depended. The other assured his majesty that it was of so much importance that he would not entrust it into the hands of the greatest of his majesty’s subjects. It was finally arranged that the king’s eldest son should proceed to Rath Goban, and, upon producing hiscredentials to the lady of the castle, receive the instrument of which she had the keeping, and which the Goban Saer named ‘Cur-an-aigh-an-cuim.’ Upon his arrival in Ireland, the young prince proceeded to fulfil his errand; but the knowing mistress of Rath Goban, judging from the tenor of the message, and the ambiguous expressions couched under the name of the pretended instrument, that her husband and father-in-law were the victims of some deep treachery, she bad him welcome, inquired closely after her absent friends, and told him he should have the object of his mission when he had refreshed himself after the fatigues of his long journey. Beguiled by the suavity of her manners and the wisdom of her words, the prince complied with her invitation to remain all night at Rath Goban. But in the midst of his security, the domestics, faithful to the call of their mistress, had him bound in chains, and led to the dungeon of the castle. Thus the wisdom of the Goban Saer and the discrimination of his daughter completely baffled the wicked designs of the king, who received intimation that his son’s life would surely atone for the blood of the architects. He dismissed them to their native country laden with splendid presents; and, on their safe arrival at Rath Goban, the prince was restored to liberty.”[432]
Gentlemen of England, where is your knowledge of history? which of your famed monarchs was it that was going to play this scurvy trick upon ourGoban, and earn for himself the infamous notoriety of a secondLaomedon, by defrauding thisarchitect, who no doubt was aHercules, of his stipulated salary?Ye shades of Alfred and of Ethelbert, I pause for a reply?
But this indignity, if offered toGoban, would be even greater than that offered by Laomedon to Hercules; for in the latter case the crime was only that ofdishonesty—which is not uncommon in any age—superadded to a spice ofimpiety, in cheating a god; but in the former case, over and above all these, would weigh a consideration which our people would never forget, namely, a violation of the laws ofgallantry, this same Goban “having been believed in this part of this country to have been awoman!”[433]And yet the same vehicle that puts forth this trash has told us, in the preceding extract, that he was afatherand ahusband! (I do not believe in hermaphrodites), and, to crown the climax of absurdity, gives us the following specimen of theheroismof hiswife, namely:—
“The Goban Saer having been barbarously murdered, together with his journeymen, by twelve highwaymen, the murderers proceeded to his house, and told the Goban’s wife, with an air of triumph, that they had killed her husband. She appearing nowise concerned, asked them to assist her in drawing open the trunk of a tree, which the Goban had been cutting up into planks. They put in their hands for the purpose, when, drawing out a wedge, she left them literally in a cleft stick, and taking up an axe, cut off all their heads at a blow”![434]
But this is ludicrously trifling with the time of my readers. I am alive to the fact, and I mostsubmissively crave forgiveness, which I doubt not I shall receive, when I state that my sole object was to expose theflimsinessof that subterfuge by which the Royal Irish Academy, or rather their council! had hoped that they could blindfold the public as well as they had succeeded in sequestrating my prize!
I do not deny indeed but that there may have been in Ireland at one time such a person as the Goban Saer: but if ever he did belong thereto, it must have been at leastsixteen hundredyears before the epoch which the Academy sanction—and so sanction, be it observed, because that a weak-minded poor monk, when writing the biography ofSt. Abhan, and torturing his invention, in all quarters, for the purpose of conjuring up miracles to lay to his score, thought the similarity of sound betweenAbhanandGobhanso inviting, that he must contrive an interview between the parties; and so, with “one fell swoop,” alias,dash of the pen, cutting off the centuries of separation, he treats himself and his pupils to the following burlesque:—
“Quidamfamossissimus in omni arte lignorum et lapidumeratin Hibernia nomine Gobbanus, cujus artis fama usquein finem sæculierit in ea. Ipse jam postquam, aliis sanatis, in superflua artis suæ mercede lumen oculorum amisit, et erat cæcus. Hic vocatus est ad S. Abbanum et dixit ei: Volo ædificium in honorem Dei ædificare, et tu age illud. Et ille ait: Quomodo possum agere cum sim cæcus? dixit ei sanctus, Quamdiu illud operaberis lumen oculorum habebis, sed tibi postea non promitto. Et ita factum est, nam ille artifex apud sanctum Dei in lumine suo operatus est, et cum esset illud perfectum lumenoculorum amisit”[435]—that is, in the true spirit of what my countrymen call asceal Feeneechtha, orPhœnician story,i.e.anentertaining lie(a proof, by the way, that they claim no kindred with the Phœnicians, else they would not thus confirm the well-known epithet ofPunica fides); however to put thissceal Feeneechthainto English, it runs thus: “Once upon a timethere lived in Erin a man most celebrated for his universal mastery over wood and stone; and whose fame, accordingly, will live therein as long asgrass shall groworpurling streams flow in its enchanting scenery. This good man’s name wasGobhan, who, wallowing in wealth from the meritorious exertions of his abilities, yet incapacitated from enjoying it by the deprivation of his sight, was summoned beforeSt. Abhan, who had already healed the rest of the world by his miraculous gifts, and who thus addresses him: ‘I wish to build a house to the honour of God; and set you about it.’ ‘How can I,’ saysGobhan, ‘seeingthat I amblind?’ ‘O very well,’ saysAbhan, ‘I will settle that; long as ever you are engaged in the business, you shall have the use of your eyes; but I make no promises afterwards!’ And verily it was so, for long as ever he did work with the saint he had the use of his sight, but soon as ever the work was done he relapsed into his former blindness!”
Well, you may laugh if you chose, in future, at the simplicity of themonks; but here is one for you, who, in the very extravagance of his simplicity, and that while bursting almost with risibility himself at the speciousness of his conceit, has contrived to bamboozle a jury ofumpireswho pique themselvesupon their contempt for everythingmonkish, and who actually, in any other case, had they theswornevidence of a monk, would go counter thereto; but here, where an old doting friar is drawing upon his ingenuity, every syllable that escapes him is taken for gospel!
Now,Ias readily believe, as they would fain persuade me, that “long asGobhandid work withAbhanhe had the use of his sight,” and that “soon as ever the work was done he relapsed into his former blindness.” And why? because the two men, living in different ages, never laid eyes upon each other at all, and thus were theyboth, morally and literally, blind to each other!
The Scythians, who were masters of this country at the Christian era, and for many centuries preceding, had a sovereign contempt for everything like architecture. “They have no towns,” says Herodotus, “no fortifications; their habitations they always carry with them.”[436]The principle which actuated them, in this indifference tohouses, was precisely that which governed the Britons in a similar taste—they were a race ofwarriors, and dreaded the imputation ofcowardicemore than they did the inclemency of theweather. It is not without reason, therefore, that we find Hollingshed, who wrote his Chronicles in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, complaining that “three things were altered for the worse in England: the multitude of chimneys lately erected, the great increase of lodgings, and the exchange of treen platters into pewter, and wooden spoons into silver and tin. Nothing but oak for building houses is now regarded: when houses were built with willow, then had weoaken men; but now our houses are come to be built of oak, our men are not only become willow, but a great many altogether of straw.”[437]
St. Bernard, also, in reference to the Irish, having mentioned that Malachy O’Morgan, archbishop of Armagh, was the first (of the Scythian race) who had erected a stone house in the island, introduces a native upbraiding him with it, in these terms: “What wonderful work is this? why this innovation in our country? we are Scots, and not Gauls, what necessity have we for such durable edifices?”
St. Abhan, therefore, who belonged to the sixth century, at which time the Scythians had here absolute sway, never once dreamt of erecting a stone edifice, or of evoking from the grave the manes ofGobhan, who, if he ever existed, must have been a member of the former dynasty.
Thosepiousfabrications which the biographers of early saints had concocted, with a view to magnify the reverence due to their subjects, remind me of one which was invented for the benefit (but in reality to the detriment) of St. Patrick, and which, even at the risk of appearing tedious, I must detail.
“Whereas,”—you perceive the record begins with all the formalities of office,—“in the year of the world 1525, Noah began to admonish the people of vengeance to come by a generall deluge for the wickednesse and detestable sinne of man, and continued his admonition for 120 years, building an arke for the safeguard of himself and his family; one Cæsarea (say they), according unto others, Caisarea,a niece of Noah (when others seemed to neglect this warning), rigging a navy, committed herself, with her adherents, to the seas, to seeke adventures and leave the plagues that were to befall. There arrived in Ireland with her three men,Bithi,Largria, andFintan, and fifty women. Within forty days after her arrivall the universal flood came upon them, and those parts, as well as upon the rest of the world, and drowned them all; in which perplexity of mind and imminent danger, beholding the waves overflowing all things before their eyes,Fintanis said to have beentransformed into a salmon, and to have swoome all the time of the deluge about Ulster; and after the fall of the water, recovering his former shape, to have lived longer thanAdam, and to have delivered strange things to posterity, so that of him the common speech riseth, ‘If I had lived Fintan’s years I could say much.’”
Well, “to make a long story short,” this same Fintan, who was converted into asalmon, for the sole purpose of accounting for his appearance on the same theatre with St. Patrick, is introduced to the saint, when, after a very diverting episode upon hissubmarineadventures, a miracle, of course, is to be wrought; and, anon, we have the contemporary ofNoah, and ofPatrick, at once asalmon, adolphin, and aman, renouncing his attachment to thewatersand to theboat, and devoutly embracing Christianity!!!
The anachronism committed in the instance of theGoban Saerwas precisely of the same character! and the very name assigned him, which is that of aclass, not of an individual, exposes the counterfeit!
Gobhan Saermeans theSacred Poet, or theFreemason Sage, one of theGuabhres, orCabiri, such as you have seen him represented upon the Tuath-de-danaan cross at Clonmacnoise. To this colony, therefore, must he have belonged, and therefore theTowers traditionally associated with his erectionmust have been constructed anterior to the Scythian influx.
But we are not left to such inferences to determine the point. A more substantial ally, the imperishable landmarks of history stand forward as my vouchers.