[49] This incomparably beautiful object, constructed of white marble, in the days of Demosthenes, in the second year of the one hundred and eleventh Olympiad, 335 years before Christ, and in the year 418 of Rome, was erected in honour of some young men of the tribe of Archamantide, victors at the public games, and dedicated, it is supposed, to Hercules.
[50] The first name ever given to this body was Saer, which has three significations—firstly, free; secondly, mason; and thirdly, Son of God. In no language could those several imports be united but in the original one, viz. the Irish. The Hebrews express only one branch of it by aliben; while the English join together the other two.
[51] Sallust, Cat. Con.
[52] Lib. xi. epist. 11.
[53] 2 Kings xvii. 29, 30.
[54] Byron.
[55] Vol. iii. p. 78, note.
[56] The tolling of a bell was supposed to have had miraculous effects—to keep the spirits of darkness from assaulting believers—to dispel thunder, and prevent the devil from molesting either the church or congregation; and hence they were always rung, in time of storm or other attack, to paralyse the fiend, whether the elements or mortal man, by the hallowed intonation. Each was dedicated to a particular saint,—duly baptized and consecrated; and the inscriptions which still remain on the old ones that have come down to us proclaim the virtue of their capabilities. The following distich will be found to sum them up, viz.:—
“Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum,
Defunctos plero, pestem fugo, festa decoro.”
And the very syllables of this which follows form a sort of tuneful galloping, viz.:—