Standish James O'Grady

Early Bardic Literature Standish James O'Grady

Scattered over the surface of every country in Europe may be found sepulchralmonuments, the remains of pre-historic times and nations, and of a phase of lifewill civilisation which has long since passed away. No country in Europe is withoutits cromlechs and dolmens, huge earthen tumuli, great flagged sepulchres, andenclosures of tall pillar-stones. The men by whom these works were made, sointeresting in themselves, and so different from anything of the kind erectedsince, were not strangers and aliens, but our own ancestors, and out of their rudecivilisation our own has slowly grown. Of that elder phase of European civilisationno record or tradition has been anywhere bequeathed to us. Of its nature, and theideas and sentiments whereby it was sustained, nought may now be learned save byan examination of those tombs themselves, and of the dumb remnants, from timeto time exhumed out of their soil-rude instruments of clay, flint, brass, and gold, and by speculations and reasonings founded upon these archaeological gleanings, meagre and saples