But I am tired of fencing with shadows and special pleading with casuists. And yet, as I would wish to render this Essay systematically complete, I am forced, however reluctant, to notice the conjecture, which others have hazarded, of those Round Towers having been places of retreat and security in the event of invasion from an enemy; or depositories and reservoirs for the records of State, the Church utensils and national treasures! To the _former_, I shall reply, that Stanihurst’s description of the “excubias in castelli vertice,” upon which it would seem to have been founded, does not at all apply to the case; because, while the “castella” have vanished, the Round Towers--which never belonged to them--do, many of them still firmly, maintain their post; and as to the _latter_, the boldness with which it has been put forward, by its author before named,[47] requires a more lengthened examination than its utter instability could otherwise justify. CHAPTER II. This chivalrous son of Mars, more conversant, I should hope, with tactics than with literary disquisitions, has started with a position which he is himself, shortly after, the most industrious to contradict; namely, “that the gods, to punish so much vanity and presumption, had consigned to everlasting oblivion the founders, names, dates, periods, and all records relating to them.”[48] Surely, if they were intended for the despicable _dungeons_ which the Colonel would persuade us was their origin, there existed neither “vanity” nor “presumption” in _that humble design_; and when to this we add the _nature_ of that security, which he tells us they were to establish, one would think that _this_ should be a ground for the perpetuity of their registration, rather than for consigning their history to “everlasting oblivion.” But secure in the consciousness of the whole history of those structures, and satisfied that _truth_ will never suffer anything by condescending to investigation, I will, to put the reader in full possession of _this_ adversary’s statement, here capitulate his arguments with all the fidelity of an honourable rival. His object, then, being to affix the Round Towers to the Christian era, he begins by insisting that, as “the architects of those buildings were consummate masters in masonic art,” it follows, that “a people so admirably skilled in masonry never could have experienced any impediments in building substantial dwellings, strong castles, palaces, or any other structures of public or private conveniency, some fragments of which, however partial and insignificant, would still be likely to appear, in despite of the corroding breath of time or the torch of devastation.”