Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, tyc. Ill 



getting his own quotation from Raderus, adds : " But let it be considered, whe- 

 ther a Ladder could from the Outside be safely reared to the Height of 60 Feet 

 against a round Spire of such small Dimensions at Top, in Order to supply the 

 Sty lite with Food and other Necessaries; unless, like Elijah, we allow him to 

 be fed by Ravens, the Necessity of which Miracle will be avoided, if we admit 

 the Eastern Pillars to have been hollow, and, like ours, fitted with Lofts and 

 Stages, by Means of which, and the Help of short Ladders, access might readily 

 be had to the Top." 



This is inexpressibly puerile. If the pillars were so narrow that a ladder 

 could not be applied with safety from the outside, their extreme diameter at 

 top being but three feet, what sort of a chimney-like cavity to place " Lofts and 

 Stages" in must that have been within it ? Certainly one not more than a foot 

 in diameter, if we allow the wall to have had any thickness, and which, conse- 

 quently, could only be ascended by a climbing-boy, and a very small one too, 

 whom we must necessarily suppose to have been attached to the saint's esta- 

 blishment for the purpose ! It is difficult indeed to treat such reasonings with 

 proper gravity. There is no distinction more ancient than that between tower 

 and pillar; insomuch that even Dr. Milner, with all his zeal in support of 

 Harris's hypothesis, had not the hardihood a quality he rarely wanted in 

 seeking to establish a point to adopt such imbecile reasonings. 



Harris, after thus settling, to his own satisfaction, the points of agreement 

 between the pillars of the Eastern Stylites and those of the West, next pro- 

 ceeds to point out the circumstances in which they differ, and to explain the 

 probable causes of this non-conformity. The first is, that the Eastern Pillars 

 were not roofed, while the Irish were invariably so, a disagreement which he 

 considered necessary from the difference of region. 



" For human Nature could not bear to be perpetually exposed without Shelter to the Severities 

 of this cold and moist Climate, whatever might have been done in the milder Eastern Countries." 



Very rational indeed ! What, then, were the uses of the four, five, or 

 six unglazed apertures at top ? Would not the situation of an unfortunate 

 anchorite thus exposed to the winds of heaven, let them blow from whatever 

 point they might, be even worse than that of a person exposed to the open air? 



He next says : 



