But you will say that my designating these structures by the name of _Budh_ is a _gratuitous assumption_, for which I have no authority other than what _imagination_ may afford me; and that, therefore, however striking may be _appearances_, you will withhold your conviction until you hear my proofs. Sir, I advance nothing that I cannot support by arguments, and should not value your adherence were it not earned by truth. This is too important an investigation to allow _fancy_ any share therein. It is not the mere settlement of an antiquarian dispute of _individual_ interest or _isolated_ locality that is involved in its adjustment,--no, its bearings are as comprehensive as its interest should be universal; _the opinions of mankind to a greater extent than you suppose will be affected by its determination_; and I should despise myself if, by any silly effort of ingenuity, I should attempt to lead your reason captive, or pander to your credulity, rather than storm your judgment. This being premised, I shall not condescend, here or elsewhere, to apologise for the freedom with which I shall express myself in the prosecution of my ideas. The spirit that breathes over the face of the work will protect me from the venom of ungenerous imputation. Freedom is indispensable to the just development of the subject. Nor do I dread any bad results can accrue from such a course, knowing that it is the _vicious_ alone who can extract poison from my page,--and they could do it as well in a museum or picture gallery,--while the _virtuous_ will peruse it in the purity of their own conceptions, and if they rise not improved, they will, at least, not deteriorated. My authority for assigning to the Round Towers the above designation is nothing less than those annals before adduced.[112] Where is it _there_? you reply. I rejoin in _Fidh-Nemphed_; which, as it has heretofore puzzled all the world to develop, I shall unfold to the reader with an almost miraculous result. _Fidh_, then--as the _Ulster Annals_, or _Fiadh_, as those of the Four Masters spell it--is the plural of _Budh_, _i.e._ Lingam; the initial _F_ of the former being only the aspirate of the initial _B_ of the latter, and commutable with it[113]; and _Nemphed_ is an adjective, signifying _divine_ or _consecrated_, from _Nemph_, the heavens: so that _Fidh-Nemphed_ taken together will import the _Consecrated Lingams_, or the _Budhist Consecrations_.