jicial temple feems to have been indebted. 

 Many learned men * have thought the Gothic 

 arch of our cathedral-churches was an imitation 

 of the natural grove. It arifes from a lofty 

 ftem ; or from two or three ftems, if they be 

 {lender; which being bound together, and 

 fpreading in every direction, cover the whole 

 roof with their ramification. In the clofe 

 receffes of the beechen-grove we find this 

 idea the moft compleat. The lofty, narrow 

 aifle the pointed arch the cluftered pillar, 

 whofe parts feparating without violence, di- 

 verge gradually to form the fretted roof, find 

 there perhaps their earlieft archetype. 



Groves too were the fcenes of fuperftition, 

 as well as of religion. Here the priefts of Baal 

 performed their prophane rites : and here the 

 back-Hiding Ifraelites ufed often to fkreen their 

 idolatries. The ftrong ideas of fuperftition, 

 which thefe gloomy retreats impreffed upon 

 the ignorance of early ages, are finely touched 

 by Virgil. The paflage I allude to, is in the 

 eighth book; where the ftory of Evander is 

 introduced. The whole country was then, as 



* See a note in bp. Warburton's edition of Pope's epift. to 

 lord Burlington. 



unpeopled 



