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.
Let me here again recall to the reader’s mind the name of Cathaoir Ghall, or temple of brightness, which I have before adduced, and when we compare all with the celestial indexes recorded in our annals, the conclusion is inevitable, that the Round Towers of Ireland were specifically constructed for the two-fold purpose of worshipping the Sun and Moon—as the authors of generation and vegetative heat—and, from the nearer converse which their elevation afforded, of studying the revolutions and properties of the planetary orbs. Let me, however, before elucidating the era of their actual erection, with their Phallic form and their further use, revert to the Mosaic history for the groundwork of my development.
“And chiefly thou, O Spirit! that dost prefer
Before all temples th’ upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know’st; thou from the first
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast abyss,
And mad’st it pregnant. What in me is dark,
Illumine! what is low, raise and support!
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to man.”[74]
CHAPTER V.
Nimrod, the son of Cush, “the mighty hunter before the Lord,” was the first person,[75] according to Vossius,[76] who introduced the worship of the sun as a deity. Disgusted with the roving character of his previous life, and tired of peregrination, he resolves to build himself a permanent abode, and persuades his followers to embark in the design, “lest they be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”[77] Mankind had already relapsed into the follies of their antediluvian ancestors. The awful lesson of the watery visitation was read to them in vain, and again they verified what God had before that memorable epoch with sorrow declared, “that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.”[78]
In Babel, the city thus agreed upon to be built, as the anchor of their stability and the basis of their renown,—we find a “Tower” mentioned, “whose top may reach,” says our version (but should it not rather be point?) towards heaven.
What was the object of this architectural elevation?