But, oh ye geologists! who by a single word (if ye should so will it) can overset all our theories--who have but to say “it is impossible,” when all our speculations, nay, even our firmly rooted belief, would be scattered, like the Atlantic wave, against the cliffs of Moher--oh, spare us! Let not the delicious, the hallowed lands of “legendarie lore” be invaded by one of you heartless monsters! Let us but picture to ourselves the sturdy figure of this investigator of pyrogeneous and heterogeneous stratifications, hammer in hand, attending to the account of some magic island or delightful land which once stretched out far and wide before him; he listens with apparent earnestness. But beware!--suddenly he is seen to stoop; he cracks off with his execrable instrument a little “specimen” of some overhanging romantic-looking cliff; anon he shakes his head portentously, and out comes an awful volley from his well-stored vocabulary of Greek derivatives, and Latin or German jaw-smashers. Out upon him, the horrid creature! Our tale, nevertheless, may be as _geologically_ true as the strictest of the Bucklands or Sedgwicks could desire; we hope so too; but may he, if one _should_ do us the honour to read our story, at least dissemble for the nonce, and _pretend_ to be as ignorant and as happy as ourselves! The land of Kylestafeen extended in former ages more than a hundred miles to the westward of the present boundary of Ireland. There was also contiguous to it, to the northward, the far-famed island of O’Brassil, besides others of inferior note. But Kylestafeen surpassed them all, not only in superior extent, but in the fertility of its soil, and in the number and capacity of its magnificent harbours; near which, under the wise and gentle sway of its beneficent monarch, flourished splendid cities. Its lovely valleys were watered by the clearest rivers, and in the grandeur of its mountains, and the beauty of its plains, by no other country under heaven could it be rivalled. We have mentioned the character of that king who at the period of our tale ruled in Kylestafeen. At this time King Loydann was extremely old, and wished to relieve his mind, for the remainder of his life, from the cares of royalty. So, on a certain day, he made a formal abdication of his throne and power to his two sons, pursuant to an old-established law in that country, which ordained, that in case the king should leave behind but two sons, they were to reign conjointly.