307 
currence of two large, rounded bosses at either angle of the base of the 
lower arm, in which mode of decoration it is certainly unique. It is 
from the grave-yard of the old church of Kilbride, in the county of Dub- 
lin. To this I cannot assign any date. 
Fig. 18. This represents the broken fragment of a small cross, formed 
out of a slab of mica slate from the Reafort Church at Glendalough. The 
ornamentation is very singular, and merely suggestive of across. It con- 
sists of four deeply incised short curves, bent outwards, and ranged round 
an imaginary centre. The extreme outline of the eross is that which 
would be given by a flat-armed cross radiating from a large circle, the 
arms scarcely extending beyond its circumference. 
This completes my present list of original sketches of crosses; and I 
shall now direct your attention to the- second group of illustrations, 
which are entirely architectural. 
Architecture—I know of no more appropriate example with which 
to commence this branch of my subject than that of a rude massive 
monolith, the simplest and, no doubt, the earliest effort of constructive 
art which it is possible for the most primitive people to devise. It does 
not follow, however, that such a monument as this indicates merely the 
lowest state of civilization in the people who erected it; such would be 
a hasty conclusion. For example: the Israelites, when they wandered 
in the desert, and there erected simple monoliths, or great piles, or py- 
ramids of stone, after the fashion of the Evyptians (as we read in the 
Book of Joshua), were undoubtedly a civilized people, acquainted with 
all the arts and sciences of their time. They erected a costly tabernacle; 
they worked in metals, as we read in the 16th chapter of the Book of - 
Numbers; they spun and wove; and having “spoiled the Egyptians” . 
as part payment for their previous state of servitude to them, it is clear 
that they understoed and could appreciate luxuries and comforts of 
living, as the valuables thus acquired could be only thus applied. It 
would be wrong, therefore, to argue that, because such a people left be- 
hind them in*their journeying only such records as a standing stone or 4 
rude pyramid, that therefore they knew no better art, and had not the 
skill, taste, or power to erect more elaborate works. All that we have 
to say is, that they did not require them, and that their genius and in- 
genuity found another channel for its exercise. Such, to a certain extent, 
may be the correct reasoning with regard to the people who constructed 
our huge monoliths and cromlechs, stone circles, and kistvaens. They 
could not have been very helpless savages, but a community capable of act- 
ing in concert to a great extent, and acquainted with some of the chief 
mechanical aids to construction, as applied to the moving of heavy masses 
of stone. Let us for a moment suppose that there is a block of rock lying 
on a moor or mountain side, and roughly measuring 26 ft. in length, 6 ft. 
in breadth, and 38 ft. in thickness, and that it is desirable that such a pillar- 
stone should be placed upright in the ground. Assemble the men of the 
parish or mountain side, and let us see how much of their art and science 
will be evoked, and what time it will take them to accomplish such a task. 
_ Fventure to say that, if left entirely to their own resources in every 
