“_Bali_, an antediluvian, and in the fifth generation from the creation, is introduced, requesting the god of gods, or Vishnu, to allow him to die by his hand, that he might go into his paradise in the _White Island_. Vishnu told him it was a favour not easily obtained; that he would however grant his request. But, says Vishnu, you cannot come into my paradise now; but you must wait till I become incarnate in the shape of a _boar_, in order to make the world undergo a total renovation, to establish and secure it upon a most firm and permanent footing: and you must wait a whole yuga till this takes place, and then you will accompany me into my paradise.” “Ganesa, who is identified with Vishnu, and has also an inferior paradise in the _White Island_, and another in the Euxine, or Jeshu sea, thus says to a king of Casi, or Benares, an antediluvian, and who, like Bali, wished much to be admitted into his elysium, “you cannot now enter my paradise in the _White Island_; you must wait 5000 years; but in the mean time you may reside in my other paradise, in the Euxine Sea.” Now, all these monstrosities, as they presented themselves to Mr. Wilford, gauging them with the comparisons of dry rule and line on the application of the true touchstone, vanish into ether. The most _mysterious_ and _religiously-occult_ name given to _Ireland_ in the days of its pristine glory was _Muc-Inis_. This word has three interpretations--firstly, the _Boar Island_; secondly, the _White Island_; and, thirdly, the _Sacred_, or rather the _Divine_, and _Consecrated Island of God_.[381] Is it necessary that I should say one syllable more to authenticate the Puranas, and identify this _hallowed_ spot with the _paradise_ of their encomiums? No: I shall not affront your understanding by so supposing. The explanation of this _single term_ has, more effectually than could a _ship-load of folios_, set to flight the hobgoblins of ignorance and of scepticism, and reared the castle of truth on the ruins of prostrated error. I would by no means, however, be understood as intending an ungenerous trophy over Mr. Wilford’s mistakes. I respect the zeal with which he embarked in his undertaking; and, to speak over-board, the lapses which he has committed were to _him_ ethically unavoidable. The sting, therefore, of the above, if any it convey, must be directed exclusively to the _romancers_ of my own country: a specimen of whom I shall give you in the Rev. Dr. Keating, who, venturing to unveil the mystery of the name _Muc-Inis_, and account for its origin, tells us, with a serious face, that “when the Danaans found the Milesians attempted to land, by their magical enchantments they threw a cloud on the island, by which it appeared no bigger than a _hog’s_ back!!!”