The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
IRENE : a Poem. By Alexander Comyne.
This is a work of promise. Mr. Alexander Comyne,
it is evident, is a young man, and, like all young poets,
he delights in description, and exquisitely graphic many
of his descriptions are. The following, which we meet
with in the second page of the poem, is quite a Claude-
like picture:—
" It is not day, it is not night:
The tranquil flood of amber light,
That lingers on the mountain's brow,
And casts its fading tints below,
That parting, yet in union holds
The approaching twilight's dusky folds;
And the pure brilliance of the west,
That gilds afar the wtherial vest;
Combine an atmosphere of bliss,
So soft, so calm, to human sense;
There breathes around such innocence
Of thought and passion, that the soul,
Springing beyond its earthly goal,
And free as its own element,
With health and vigour redolent,
Dwells in ideal happiness.
It is not night; the veil of bliss
That hangs o'er nature, shrouds a rest,
Oh ! far more exquisitely blest !
Ms day, now melted into peace.",
The plot of the poem is the simplest imaginable. Irene,
the daughter of a noble, loves Haro, a youth of low
parentage: they fly together. The father of Irene pur-
sues them, and arrives at the sea-shore just as the
lovers have embarked. A storm arises, their barque
founders, and, like Lord Ullin,
"The waters wild
Sweep o'er his child,
And he is left lamenting."
-

This plot, however, is me-rely the thread running
through a pearl-chain of poetry, for this small brochure
contains much true poetry. The description of "Hope,"
for instance, is exceedingly beautiful:
"But what is hope? a meteor-gleam
That dances o'er the path of life,
That faintly gilds the ruffled stream
Of worldly love, and bosomed strife ;
The vision of a charmed eye,
The phantom of reality."
There is something sublime in the description of the
rising of the storm which engulphs Irene and her lover:
" But, bark ! a murmuring mystery of sound
Dispels the leaden atmosphere around;
In hollow whispering blasts the wind
Plays o'er the rippling deep,
That like a mighty mind,
Troubled in its sleep,
With majesty of motion swells,
Graceful, dignified, and slow—
Waking the music of its shells,
That be a hudred fathoms down ;
Where Ocean's fountains ever flow,
And hideous forms and creatures creep,
In kingdoms all their own."
" Irene" contains much genuine poetry, but it is es•i
dent that Mr. Alexander Comyne is at present merely
trying his powers. He will, ere long, essay a bolder
flight, and, whenever he does, it will be his own fault if
he does not succeed.

THE ROUND TOWERS and ECCLESIAS-
TICAL ARCHITECTURE of IRELAND. By
George Petrie.
For centuries a controversy has been maintained
among archaeologists as to the origin and uses of up-
wards of one hundred towers, built in a cylindrical
shape, and scattered throughout Ireland. With the
exception of the Cromlechs and the fragments of
Druidical stones,whichtestify in their very ruggedness
to their connexion with a stern and sanguinary
idolatry, the structures which have produced these
antiquarian debates appear to be the first ecclesias-
tical piles raised by the ancient inhabitants of our
sister island; and it is in consequence of this extreme
remoteness of the period of their construction, as
well as of certain remarkable peculiarities which are
still visible upon their ruins, that architects, his-
torians, and topographers have all found great diffi-
culties in the way of arriving at any accurate
conclusion. A mere insinuation on the part of
Giraldus Cambrensis first animated the inquiry and ever
since then conjectures after conjectures, theories after
theories, flooded the pages of Irish research, until
the question became more and more complicated,
and the prospect of at length arriving at the truth
more and more obscure and visionary. From the
ingenuity in masonry which the " Ostrnen" had dis-
played before their invasion of Ireland, Molyneux has
surmised that those buildings were strictly of Danish
erection, an hypothesis which was in sound measure
supported by tradition ' • on the other hand, General
Vallancey has advanced a much bolder proposition, by
ascribing them to the industry of the Phc:enicians,
and supports his argument by comparing them to the
Persian fire-temples. Indeed, no supposition has ap-
peared too improbable, no reasonings too chimerical
to parties desirous of advancing some novel explana-
tion of the epoch and the objects which should be ap-
priated to the originators of the round towers. Any
new peculiarity, however small, not hitherto disco-
covered among their remnants, acted like a talis-
man upon the imaginations of such individuals ; and
upon the meagre basis of a single fact arose a world
of shallow conclusions. According to some they were
colossal cenotaphs to the departed great, while, ac-
cording to others, they were signal towers
to the faithful, who were summoned to
worship by the sound of a brazen trumpet
issuing through its loophooles—the multitude
having been called together in olden days by the
tones of that instrument. The narrowness of an up-
per apartment caused one to maintain that the edifice
was devoted to the voluntary imprisonment of some
recluse, dwelling for ever in a lofty solitude, like that
of St. Simeon Stylites; while, from the smoothness
of the inner walls, or the casual detection of a bone,
they were declared by another to be nothing less
than charnel-houses. In the volume, however, which
lies before us—the laborious and elaborated production
of Mr. George Petrie—these numerous conjectures
are controverted one by one, and an entirely novel
theory is advanced instead. The work is an exten-
sion of an essay which, in 1833, obtained a gold
medal and a prize of fifty guineas from the Royal
Irish Academy; and the book is in every respect so
replete with archaeological erudition, historical re-
search, and sagacity of deduction, as to claim a place
among the national literature of Ireland. We cannot
better convey a notion of the author's general opinions
upon the subject in question, than by quoting the
arguments are intended to de-
monstratem a in
points
" L That the towers are of Christian and ecclesias-
tical: which his arg
origin, and were erected at various periods between
the fifth and thirteenth centuries.
" 11. That they were designed to answer, at least, a two-
foldiechasthe sacred utensils, books,
belfries and as keeps, or
plae
euss e,
of nstrength
t oi n s ewrhv
relics, and other valuables were deposited, and into
which the ecclesiastics, to whom they belonged, could
retire for security in cases of sudden predatory attack.
aedit thesel
a novel
manner declatrhaattio snhs,al al npdia to
place
do
ths o
e" 111. That they were probably also used, when occa-
sion required, as beacons and watch-towers."
wiTthu olelciduciidvat and
question beyond dispute all
darkestthe an c
ai egnets
havearchives
t oand
e
Tte
records of Hibernia, in
,
acrupulousl.- searched and collated. From these
hoonugses and other edifices
the tribes which
originallys°u rfL wce
colonized
were constructed almost entirely of timber, though
learn,nized that
Ireland,am
they were frequently built also of uncemented blocks
of stone—a style of architecture denominated the
Cyclopean ; specimens of these Pelasgic structures
are still standing in secluded spots in the counties of
Galway and Kerry, the layers of stone converging
towards one another in a circular manner, until
the apex is closed up with a single stone.
It is likewise attested by facts and assurances, at
which the most unbelieving opponent cannot now
cavil, that a more durable, or rather a more solid
and compact character of masonry, was not introduced
until after the appearance of Christianity in the insula
sacra, and that then churches, and oratories, and
abbeys very speedily accumulated in all directions of
the country. In connexion with these churches, ac -
cording to the most distant ecclesiastical records,
there were raised certain campanilia, or belfries,
while, from the peculiar formation of the round
towers, as well as from the circumstance of their
never being found far removsd from the ruins of some
sacred edifice, it becomes a very natural conclusion
that those very buildings are the campanilia men-
tioned. What renders this deduction still more rea-
sonable is the fact, that in every masonic particula-
rity they bear a striking analogy or relationship to
the ecclesiastical structures with which they are so
closely allied by position. Between the larger masses
of stone, which constitute the principle portion of
their bulk, and in every possible corner and
crevice, are inserted hammered splinters of the
same material, or, as it is generally termed
" spawled rubble," precisely in the same
fashion in which the adjacent chapels are con-
structed ; the basis in each instance is elevated
on a succession of steps or plinths ; the doorways are
either quadrangular and covered with a lintel, or
formed ith a semi-circular head, and are sometimes
ornamented with architraves; details that are never
observable in the Pagan temples, and are exclusively
peculiar to the earliest ecclesiastical mannerisms. In
addition to these very conclusive arguments, it is sin-
gular that upon the interior and exterior surface of
the round towers are repeatedly discovered emblems,
mottoes, and ornaments entirely of a Christian nature.
That they were occasionally applied to the purposes
of protection, as maintained by Mr. Petrie, appears
not at all improbable, since a very remarkable resem-
blance may be traced between them and the old for-
tresses in Britain, not one of the least significant
features of which is in the elevation of the entrance
doors, variably, from eight to thirty feet above
the level of the ground. From these, and various
other characteristics, it is not surprising that the ob-
servant shrewdness of Sir Walter Scott
should, some years ago, have accidentally hit upon
the identical notions which the present volume
undertakes to demonstrate, where, in speaking of the
round towers, in the Quarterly Review, he observes,
"It is all but impossible to doubt that they were ec-
clesiastical buildings ;" and again—" they might pos-
sibly have been contrived for the temporary retreat of