567 



to the introduction of nonmial Christianity into Irehind, 

 might still have, to a certain extent, some analogies to views 

 entertained by the African and Asiatic ascetics, and which 

 might have been imported into Ireland by the first Chris- 

 tians, in the third century ; who.if from Africa or Spain, may 

 have brought with them more or less of Gnosticism (or 

 views analogous to it), and with it notions and practices not 

 very unlike, apparently the same originally with those, by 

 which the author above-mentioned endeavoured to explain 

 the nature and origin of the Round Towers. The first no- 

 minal Christians, if he had been correctly informed, who 

 came to Ireland, were lay ascetics;* and, like the ascetics of 

 Egypt and the East, they selected secluded valleys in the 

 mountains, or islands in lakes, where they gave themselves 

 up to those penitential observances calculated, according to 

 their views, to destroy the " Hylic, or material," to humble 

 and conquer the " psychic,oranimal,"and to elevate and culti- 

 vate the " pneumatic, orspiritual,"principle of their natures. 

 It was argued that, if the tower was the residence of 

 the Irish ascetics during their lives, it may have been con- 

 sidered the type of the plus, male, " pneumatic," or spiritual 

 principle ; and so the earth, grave, crypt, or church near it, 

 in which were deposited the bodies, or material principles of 

 the deceased, originally derived from mother earth, may 

 have been considered the type of the negative female, hylic, 

 or material principle, and have been considered analogous 

 to Ge, or De-meter, to whom the body of the dead returned, 

 by interment ; and, hence, it was argued that, if O'Brien's 

 theory were true in this qualified sense, it should apply to 

 the churches or graves near the towers or residences of the 

 ascetics, where we should find types or indications of the 

 negative principle. Mr. R. P. Collis, who was present, im- 



* See Moore's Hist. p. 221. The extract from St. Patrick's letter; "ubi nun- 

 quam pervenerat qui baptizaret, aut clericos ovdinaret, aut populosconsummaret." 



