Round Towers of Ireland. 361 
new ones may be formed as legitimate, and 
perhaps no less pleasing 
We have not attempted to prove that they 
are the creatures of yesterday—that they were 
built by our contemporaries, or by our im- 
mediate ancestors. A thousand years have 
rolled over their heads,—ten thousand storms 
assailed their summits,—yet they remain still 
unshaken in their adamantine strength, or, 
still “majestic in decay.” It is true, we have 
shown that they are not of Pagan origin: but 
can this be matter of regret to a Christian? 
From their hollow precincts, issued perhaps 
the first sweet sounds of the Sabbath-bell, 
which, echoing from hill to hill, summoned 
the wild savages from their rocks and woods, 
to join in social worship, to hear the blessed 
tidings of the Gospel of Christ, and to learn 
that they were endowed with anobler nature, 
gifted with higher powers, and born to a 
richer inheritance than the ‘‘brutes which 
perish,”’ ge 
The simple churches, built before the Pa- 
pal usurpations, which saw the erection of the 
Round Towers, are most of them gone for 
ever, and the rest fast mouldering into dust. 
The magnificent structures which succeeded, 
the pride of the sons of Rome, are now also 
in ruins, and must soon follow their ruder 
Zz 
