84 



i 



circles which but marked the scenes of sun worship, and whereof so 

 many yet remain in Ireland ; an inference corroborated by the fact, 

 that neither the ancient Gauls nor Britons had any statues in their 

 Druidical worship, and that no idols of shape or workmanship have 

 ever been discovered in Ireland, with the exception of that undefina- 

 ble fragment of wood, alluded to by Gough, in his edition of 

 Camden.* 



It is true, that this most legitimate species of Paganism did in 

 that island, as with the Magi of Persia, appear to degenerate into fire 

 worship ; but the more liberal will perhaps allow in the former case, as 

 they do in the latter, that fire was only used as a symbol of the visible 

 fountain of light and heat, which was deemed in both countries, if not 

 the deity, at least the throne of his glory. It is also a curious coinci- 

 dence, that all the writers of the sixth, seventh, eighth, and immedi- 

 ately subsequent centuries, who speak of the ancient religion of Ire- 

 land as assimilating with the Persian in the veneration and solemn 

 use of fire, do also designate its priesthood as Magi ; while the parallel 

 exclusion of statues and idols, and yet more the erection of round 

 towers so similar to the TrvpaOeia of Strabo, and the Atush Kudu, or 

 fire temples enjoined by Zoroaster, (as shall be shewn in the fifth 

 section of this period, where further testimony of sun worship will be 

 given ;) and so totally unknown in any country, where Druidism, 

 Christianity, or Wodenism prevailed, mark the fact of some form of 

 worship having flourished in Ireland distinct from all these. 



It is the fashion of the day to call the ancient Irish priesthood 



* Camden, vol. 3. p. 472-3. It is wortliy of note, that I<ucian says, the ancient temples of 

 tfie Egyptians had no statues, and there were none found at the temple of Gades.^See Silius 

 Italicus, lib. 3. v. 30. Herodian says, (lib. 5. c. 3.) that the Phoenicians had no statues, and 

 he, (lib. 1. c. 131,) and Strabo (lib. 15,) affirm the same of the ancient Persians, 



