In respect to _religion_, Herodotus states that, “_from his own knowledge_, the Persians had neither statues, temples, nor altars, but offered on the tops of the highest mountains sacrifices to Jove, by which they meant the deity of the air; that they adored the _sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and the winds_, but that they sacrificed to these _only from of old, according to ancient custom_, and that they gave the preference to Trefoil, whereon they laid their offerings.”[502] Now, two considerations are to be observed, as involved in this last quotation: one is, that the historian attributes the usages of this nation to two distinct periods of time. From ocular inspection, he avows that they had no _temples, etc., because such were long exploded_. And _he knew not what to make of the Round Towers_. Part, however, of the ceremonial appertaining to those edifices still remained, such as the worship of the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and the winds; and “to these,” he frankly acknowledges, “they sacrificed _only from of old_,” or in deference to the practice of their predecessors--I will not say forefathers. Contemplate now the reverence shown to the herb _Trefoil_, our _national shamrock_, and will you not see another link of that great concatenation uniting the two Irans, and triumphing at once over _supposition_ and over _scepticism_? I have already deplumed St. Patrick of the _serpent_ expulsion; or, rather, I have done honour to his memory, by saving it from the fabrications of _pious_ impostors. I now continue my course of justice, by showing that he had as little to do with the veneration paid to this plant. It was worshipped in the Emerald Island, and imported, you perceive, by the Tuath-de-danaans, centuries upon centuries before the apostle was born: and the cause of this devotion was, not alone that it symbolised the _Trinity_, which was an article of Budhist doctrine, even before the incarnation of Christ, but because that it _blended with_ it, in mystery as well as in gratitude, the _Alibenistic cross_, the seal of their redemption, and their passport to eternity! Here then are the _shamrocks_, or _Free-masonic devices_, upon the crowns of our _Irish_ kings explained; and those upon the _Persian_ crowns, by and by to be inserted, are similarly expounded![503] Lastly, the _funerals_ of the Persians--after the soul’s liberation from its tenement of clay, at the summons of its God--are described by Herodotus[504] with so striking a similtude, that you would imagine he had witnessed, and expressly referred to, the like scenes in Ireland.[505] Oh! “if the human mind can ever flatter itself with having been successful in discovering the truth, it is when many facts, and these facts of different kinds unite in producing the same result.”[506]