360 Observations on the 
Should our arguments have appeared deci- 
cisive to any who havehitherto regarded these 
buildings as of unknown date and unintelli- 
gible application, and should we ‘have thus 
destroyed their poetic associations, and put an 
end to their amusing speculations, they will 
perhaps excuse us for having substituted in 
their minds ‘certainty for doubt, facts for 
theory, truth for error. If their previous 
opinions have not been shaken, they may by 
our arguments still continue to regard with 
pleasing, though undefined wonder, these 
records of the olden time, to exercise their 
skill in defending the theories of others, or 
their ingenuity in forming new ones of 
their own. ‘To those who have embraced no 
particular theory, and whose minds have not 
been prejudiced on the subject, we flatter 
ourselves that the opinion we have maintained 
will seem the most probable one, and that 
they will yield their assent to it, until some 
other supposition, more reasonable in itself, 
or supported by stronger evidence, be pro- 
duced in its stead. 
If our time permitted, and the nature of 
our subject authorised such a digression, we 
might perhaps show, that though some old 
associations may be destroyed by admitting 
our theory respecting the Round Towers, 
