Here I would have it distinctly noticed, that the above-mentioned individuals who shone in the galaxy of our early Christian constellations, had been but just converted from paganism by St. Patrick, and consequently were not indebted for this “learned lore” to the Romish missionaries, but to the more elevated genius of their native institutions. This it was that enabled them to make those astronomical observations which our annals commemorate; and who can say, amidst the decay of time, the ravages of persecution, and the fury of fanaticism, what tomes of such labours has not the world lost? Some few, however, remain, of which we shall adduce some by way of specimen. Solar eclipses of 495, 664, 810, 884; lunar, of 673, 717, 733, 807, 877; solar and lunar, 864; a comet 911, are recorded in our annals. Those of the “Four Masters” additionally record certain extraordinary celestial phenomena in 743:--“Visæ sunt stellæ quasi de cœlo cadere.” Again, in 744, they observe: “Hoc anno stellæ item de cœlo frequentes deciderunt”; while it cannot be too diligently noted, “that, when the rest of Europe, as Vallancey so justly remarked, through ignorance or forgetfulness, had no knowledge of the _true figure_ of the earth, in the eighth century, the rotundity and true formation of it should have been taught in the Irish schools,” which we shall by and by more pointedly advert to. It thus appears manifest that the Irish must, at one time, have not only possessed, but excelled in, the science of astronomy. How did they acquire it? is the next question. “Ad illa mihi pro se quisque acriter intendat animum.” In that passage of Diodorus, to which I have already referred, we find the following appropriate characteristic:--“It is affirmed that Latona was born there, and that, therefore, the worship of Apollo is preferred to that of any other God; and as they daily celebrate this deity with songs of praise, and worship him with the highest honours, they are considered as _peculiarly_ the _priests_ of Apollo, whose sacred grove and _singular_ temple of _round form_, endowed with many gifts, are there.” Now, it is universally known that Apollo, which, “according to the learned Pezron, is no other than Ap-haul, or the son of the Sun,” was understood by the ancients only essentially to typify that powerful planet, “which animates and imparts fecundity to the universe, whose divinity has been accordingly honoured in every quarter by temples and by altars, and consecrated in the religious strains of all nations” and all climes. His being peculiarly worshipped in this island only shows the intimate knowledge it possessed of the mysteries of the _solar system_; and that near converse which we have been already told it possessed with the moon, is confirmation the most positive of this explanation.