306 7 
be now determined. On the opposite side of the cross is a figure of the 
Crucifixion, also carved in the highest relief, which deserves our espe- 
cial attention for its many peculiarities. The head is erect; the arms 
most rigid, and simply, I might say conventionally, carved; the hands 
are also idealized, and are not represented as pierced with nails. The 
face of the figure, so far as its features can now be discerned, is calm; 
the head is bare; the forehead bounded by a narrow band, apparently 
confining the hair, which falls in long curls over the shoulders. The 
beard is pointed and forked, after the Saxon fashion. The shoulders are 
broad and the waist slender, and surrounded by a belt, which supports 
a Short kilt. The rest of the figure is unfortunately wanting. 
The expression suggested by this effigy, even as we see it now, is 
one of the greatest dignity and repose; and when we look on it, we for- 
get that it represents a suffering man, and are willing to recognise in it 
a symbolism of divinity. In conveying to the mind this impression, 
such efforts of art as this (when executed in Ireland prior to the close of 
the twelfth century) differ totally in style and spirit from similar designs, 
when idealized according to the spirit of the Latin Church. Those re- 
present the figure as either writhing in pain or dead from the greatest 
physical suffering; but in the Celtce idea all thought of this appears to 
be lost. The expression of any mere human weakness is carefully 
avoided—possibly as a matter of faith—and the figure on the cross is not 
the representation of an absolute event, but the embodiment of an idea. 
This is a very striking and singular difference in the peculiar mode of 
thought of the early Celtic as contrasted with the Latin Christians; but 
its full discussion belongs rather to the divine than the antiquary. 
In Fig. 10 I have given a restoration of the head of this cross, as by 
this means we can best appreciate the exceeding beauty of its design, 
which is especially evinced in the form of the pierced’ spaces which sepa- 
rate the cross from the circle. St. Cronan, according to Colgan, died 
early in the seventh century; but this work is clearly of a much later - 
date, probably the tenth or eleventh century. 
Fig. 11. This sketch represents the standing cross near the Dargle, 
in the county of Wicklow; and it affords us another example of a Cru- 
cifixion, but very different from the former in all essential points. The 
figure is nude; the head hangs powerless on the right shoulder; while 
the body is represented as slightly bent from lassitude. These peculiari- 
ties, as I have already remarked, are the characteristics of the Latin 
idealization of the Crucifixion ; and, taken in connexion with the general 
style of the work, and the roughness of its execution, induce us to be- 
lieve that it is not a work of any great antiquity. The peculiar form of 
the plinth also, which is that of a truncated cone, is quite unlike any 
other remains of this kind of unquestionable antiquity with which I 
am acquainted, and therefore I think this cross may not be older than 
the seventeenth century. 
Fig. 12. This is a simple short-armed cross, carved in relief on a slab 
of granite; the arms very flat and wide; the lower member of which 
is much shorter than the others. The only peculiarity about it is the oc- 
