“The traveller was enabled to journey through this immense country with ease and safety; the public roads were shaded with trees to defend him from its scorching sun; at convenient distances buildings were erected for him to repose in, a friendly Brahmin attended to supply his wants; and _hospitality_ and the _laws_ held out assistance and protection to _all alike_, without prejudice or partiality.... We afterwards see the empire overrun by a fierce race of men, who in the beginning of their furious conquests endeavoured, with their country, to subdue the minds of the Hindoos. They massacred the people, tortured the priests, threw down many of the temples, and, what was still more afflicting, converted some of them into places of worship for their prophet, till at length, tired with the exertion of cruelties which they found to be without effect, and guided by their interest, which led them to wish for tranquillity, they were constrained to let a religion and customs subsist which they found it impossible to destroy. But during these scenes of devastation and bloodshed, the sciences, being in the sole possession of the priests, who had more pressing cares to attend to, were neglected, and are now almost forgotten.” I have dwelt thus long upon the article of India, from my persuasion of the intimate connection that existed at one time as to religion, language, customs, and mode of life between some of its inhabitants and those of _this_ western island. I have had an additional motive, and that was to show that the same cause which effected the _mystification_ that overhangs _our_ antiquities, has operated similarly with respect to _theirs_, and this brings me back to the subject of the Round Towers, in the _history_, or rather the _mystery_, of which, in both countries, this result is most exemplified. As to their appropriation, then, to the _sacred_ fire, though I do not deny that _some_ of them _may_ have been connected with it, yet unquestionably _too much importance_ has been attached to the _vitrified_ appearance of Drumboe tower as if necessarily enforcing our acquiescence in the universality of that doctrine. “At some former time,” says the surveyor, “_very strong fires have been burned_ within this building, and the inside surface towards the bottom has the appearance of vitrification.” I do not at all dispute the _accident_, but while the vitrified aspect which _this tower_ exhibits is proof irresistible that _no fire ever entered_ those in which _no such_ vitrification appears, I cannot but _here too_ express more than a surmise that it was not the “_sacred fire_,” which, when religiously preserved, was not allowed to break forth in those _volcanoes_ insinuated; but in a _lambent, gentle flame_, emblematic of that emanation of the spirit of the Divinity infused, as _light from light_, into the soul of man.