379 



* c Excussisse deum. Tanto magis ille fatigat 



*' Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo. JEhzid rj. 



" I feel the god, the rushing god ! she cries — 

 ~" While thus she spoke, enlarged her features grew, 

 " . Her colour chang'd, her locks dishevell'd flew ; 

 " The heavenly tumult reigns in every part, 

 " Pants in her breast, and swells her rising heart ; 

 " Still spreading to the sight, the priestess glow'd, 

 " And heav'd impatient of th' incumbent god. 

 " Then, to her inmost soul, by Pho-bus fn'd, 

 " In more than human sounds she spoke inspir'd." Pitt's Virgil. 



These are remarkable instances, and mutually reflect light on 

 each other: the sacred historian explaining the profane, and the 

 profane illustrating the sacred. I am indebted to Harmer's obser- 

 vations for many of the preceding illustrations of this singular 

 subject, which I shall conclude with an extract from the life of 

 the late Dr. Townson, by archdeacon Churton; it deserves the 

 attention of every unprejudiced mind, as it places the hypothesis 

 in a fair light, and is ablj r defended by the writer. It may be 

 necessary to premise that it was Dr. Townson to whom Lord North 

 addressed himself when the Divinity chair of the university of Ox- 

 ford became vacant by the death of Dr. Wheeler, in 1783. Lord 

 North, then chancellor of Oxford, thus writes to Dr. Townson: 

 " Upon the death of Dr. Wheeler, the king commanded me to 

 look out for a proper successor; by which words his majesty un- 

 derstood some person confessedly well-qualified for the Divinity 

 chair, whose promotion should be acceptable to the public at 

 lar^e, and, particularly, to the university of Oxford. I have since 

 endeavoured to execute his majesty's commands; and, after the 



