36 



quity ; he does, however, too frequently present that mixture of 

 truth and fable which is at once the error and the evidence of an 

 ancient history, and it is on this account he is only brought forward 

 to fill minuter breaches in the line of proofs, that can sufficiently 

 maintain their ground without his co-operation. Yet, when the 

 passage, loose as it may at first appear in its bearings, speaks of an 

 ascertained island beyond the pillars of Hercules — of fruitful soil but 

 mountainy appearance — watered by numerous rivers — ;freshening with 

 fertility — crowned with forests of all kinds of timber — encircled by a 

 sea that teems with quantities of fish, (possibly the ^^^vvviov ttXijOoq"* 

 of Aristotle,) when it attributes to the inhabitants of this island those 

 hunting pursuits so peculiarly referred to Ireland by Bede, when it 

 mentions the frequent voyages of the Phcenicians thither in com- 

 mercial pursuits, from the very remotest times ; the Irish reader 

 will be almost led to give credence to the "sumptuosis aedificiis," that 

 so exactly agree with the "evpea ^w/tar"-|' of Orpheus, or at best only 

 put them aside as surplusage that conceals from his view the picture 

 of his country. 



Thus it is hoped that as far as the limits of this Essay would 

 permit, the Phoenician colonization and subsequent intercourse with 

 Ireland have been established, not only by similarity of language, and 

 the concurring traditions of every part of the British empire, but also 

 by all the external testimony, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek, 

 Roman, Spanish, and Portuguese, that could be reasonably expected 

 for so remote a fact, and to which the ancient annalists of Ireland could 

 by no probability have had access. He, who is still a sceptic, must 

 look into the singular coincidences in the legends, the footsteps of 

 oriental intercourse in the traditions, and the legibility of primeval 



• Ante, p. 3a - f Ante, p. 27. 



