m the
meanness or the misfortunes of our middle ages, we clung to the belief
of their Pagan origin.

In fancy we had seen the white-robed Druid tend the holy fire in their
lower chambers--had measured with the Tyrian-taught astronomer the
length of their shadows--and had almost knelt to the elemental worship
with nobles whose robes had the dye of the Levant, and sailors whose
cheeks were brown with an Egyptian sun, and soldiers whose bronze arms
clashed as the trumpets from the tower-top said that the sun had risen.
What wonder that we had resented the attempt to cure us of so sweet a
frenzy?

We plead guilty to having opened Mr. Petrie's work strongly bigoted
against his conclusion.

On the other hand, we could not forget the authority of the book. Its
author we knew was familiar beyond almost any other with the
country--had not left one glen unsearched, not one island untrod; had
brought with him the information of a life of antiquarian study, a
graceful and exact pencil, and feelings equally national and lofty. We
knew also that he had the aid of the best Celtic scholars alive in the
progress of his work. The long time taken in its preparation ensured
maturity; and the honest men who had criticised it, and the adventurers
who had stolen from it enough to make false reputations, equally
testified to its merits.

Yet, we repeat, we jealously watched for flaws in Mr. Petrie's
reasoning; exulted as he set down the extracts from his opponents, in
the hope that he would fail in answering them, and at last surrendered
with a sullen despair.

Looking now more calmly at the discussion, we are grateful to Mr.
Petrie for having driven away an idle fancy. In its stead he has given
us new and unlooked-for trophies, and more solid information on Irish
antiquities than any of his predecessors. We may be well content to
hand over the Round Towers to Christians of the sixth or the tenth
century, when we find that these Christians were really eminent in
knowledge as well as piety, had arched churches by the side of these
_campanilia_, gave an alphabet to the Saxons, and hospitality and
learning to the students of all western Europe--and the more readily,
as we got in exchange _proofs_ of a Pagan race having a Pelasgic
architecture, and the arms and ornaments of a powerful and cultivated
people.

The volume before us contains two parts of Mr. Petrie's essay. The
first part is an examination of the false theories of the origin