Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Remarks On Henry O'Brien's Essay On The Round Towers Of Ireland.
REMARKS ON HENRY O'BRIEN'S ESSAY ON THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND .
TO THE EDITOR OP THE FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY REVIEW .
SIR AND BROTHER . —A notice in your second Number ( which I was unable to procure till some weeks after its publication ) drew my attention to Mr . Henry O'Brien ' s Essay on tbe Round Towers of Ireland . Another long interval occurred before I obtained a copy of that book , and professional occupations prevented my giving my attention to it when I obtained it ; so that I was only just preparing some observations to you upon itwhen the announcement of MrO'Brien ' s death withheld me
, . , for a time , from sending them . I now submit them to you , having carefully endeavoured to divest them of every expression which could hurt the feelings of a living brother , or be considered disrespectful to the memory of a dead one . But , though " amicus Plato , magis arnica Veritas ; " and , however sacred the feelings or the memory of a brother ought to be , the cause of our Brotherhood is to me mote sacred ; and the author of the essay in questionblacing the name of Freemasonry
, y p on his label and title page , and alluding to our Order as heing intimatel y connected with his subject , has made it , I conceive , a fair subject for criticism in a Masonic publication . Had he not done so , however I may differ from him on theological or scientific grounds , I should not have offered to controvert any of his positions in your Magazine .
1 may be allowed to premise , that the Essay bears testimony to the great reading and research , as well as to the great ingenuity of the author . I will mention , also , that the main position he has advanced , namely , the Phallic origin of the Round Towers , is the hypothesis regarding them whicli 1 have been long inclined to adopt ; and I am neither disposed nor prepared to dispute those parts of his book whicli relate to the history of the people whom he denominates Tuathdedanaans , as connected with his theory of the Towers . But I consider him to have fallen into error on some very important points , owing to an over-fondness for discovering an allegory , where a literal interpretation of accredited history is liable to no reasonable objections .
The first point , then , on which I differ from him , is what he has called " the Allegory of the Serpent , " p . 232 , and " the Mosaic Myth respecting the forbidden apple , " p . 229 ; nor can I assent to his assumption , " that in addition to the Towers , he has expounded the mysteries of Genesis . " There is , indeed , in this part of his Essay , an apparent inconsistency , to which I will barely allude ; for while he first , in p . 231 , represents Eve as the first Buddhist , and Cain , her apostate
son , as the first priest of the Buddhist order , because " he recognized Jehovah only as the God of nature and increase , and did not look forward to the redemption by blood , " in other passages ( pp . 292-5 , and 328-30 , & c . ) he represents the Buddhist doctrine as being , in so far as the redemption by blood was a part of it , identical with that of the Freemason and the Christian . But , acknowledging , as I do , the Bible as the rule of faithand contented to understand what it relates in a plain
, and literal sense , 1 see no difficulty in believing literall y the Mosaic history of the fall of Adam , or in agreeing with learned commentators , that the test of obedience prescribed to him , simple as it was , of abstaining from a particular fruit , was sufficient " to make him sensible , that vol .. m . ' v
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Remarks On Henry O'Brien's Essay On The Round Towers Of Ireland.
REMARKS ON HENRY O'BRIEN'S ESSAY ON THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND .
TO THE EDITOR OP THE FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY REVIEW .
SIR AND BROTHER . —A notice in your second Number ( which I was unable to procure till some weeks after its publication ) drew my attention to Mr . Henry O'Brien ' s Essay on tbe Round Towers of Ireland . Another long interval occurred before I obtained a copy of that book , and professional occupations prevented my giving my attention to it when I obtained it ; so that I was only just preparing some observations to you upon itwhen the announcement of MrO'Brien ' s death withheld me
, . , for a time , from sending them . I now submit them to you , having carefully endeavoured to divest them of every expression which could hurt the feelings of a living brother , or be considered disrespectful to the memory of a dead one . But , though " amicus Plato , magis arnica Veritas ; " and , however sacred the feelings or the memory of a brother ought to be , the cause of our Brotherhood is to me mote sacred ; and the author of the essay in questionblacing the name of Freemasonry
, y p on his label and title page , and alluding to our Order as heing intimatel y connected with his subject , has made it , I conceive , a fair subject for criticism in a Masonic publication . Had he not done so , however I may differ from him on theological or scientific grounds , I should not have offered to controvert any of his positions in your Magazine .
1 may be allowed to premise , that the Essay bears testimony to the great reading and research , as well as to the great ingenuity of the author . I will mention , also , that the main position he has advanced , namely , the Phallic origin of the Round Towers , is the hypothesis regarding them whicli 1 have been long inclined to adopt ; and I am neither disposed nor prepared to dispute those parts of his book whicli relate to the history of the people whom he denominates Tuathdedanaans , as connected with his theory of the Towers . But I consider him to have fallen into error on some very important points , owing to an over-fondness for discovering an allegory , where a literal interpretation of accredited history is liable to no reasonable objections .
The first point , then , on which I differ from him , is what he has called " the Allegory of the Serpent , " p . 232 , and " the Mosaic Myth respecting the forbidden apple , " p . 229 ; nor can I assent to his assumption , " that in addition to the Towers , he has expounded the mysteries of Genesis . " There is , indeed , in this part of his Essay , an apparent inconsistency , to which I will barely allude ; for while he first , in p . 231 , represents Eve as the first Buddhist , and Cain , her apostate
son , as the first priest of the Buddhist order , because " he recognized Jehovah only as the God of nature and increase , and did not look forward to the redemption by blood , " in other passages ( pp . 292-5 , and 328-30 , & c . ) he represents the Buddhist doctrine as being , in so far as the redemption by blood was a part of it , identical with that of the Freemason and the Christian . But , acknowledging , as I do , the Bible as the rule of faithand contented to understand what it relates in a plain
, and literal sense , 1 see no difficulty in believing literall y the Mosaic history of the fall of Adam , or in agreeing with learned commentators , that the test of obedience prescribed to him , simple as it was , of abstaining from a particular fruit , was sufficient " to make him sensible , that vol .. m . ' v