From the Formorians, who came
before the Deluge, to the Milesians, who came from Spain in the Historic
Period, the island was continuously inhabited. This demonstrates (1)
that these legends did not come from Christian sources, as the Bible
record was understood in the old time to imply a destruction of all who
lived before the Flood except Noah and his family; (2) it confirms our
view that the Deluge was a local catastrophe, and did not drown the
whole human family; (3) that the coming of the Formorians having been
before the Deluge, that great cataclysm was of comparatively recent
date, to wit, since the settlement of Ireland; and (4) that as the
Deluge was a local catastrophe, it must have occurred somewhere not far
from Ireland to have come to their knowledge. A rude people could
scarcely have heard in that day of a local catastrophe occurring in the
heart of Asia.
There are many evidences that the Old World recognized Ireland as
possessing a very ancient civilization. In the Sanscrit books it is
referred to as Hiranya, the "Island of the Sun," to wit, of sun-worship;
in other words, as pre-eminently the centre of that religion which was
shared by all the ancient races of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.
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