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terpreter 43 stood in need of an Interpretation, and Divination was configned to Divination: Hence arose the neceffity of the "Topal, or fubordinate Prophets, whofe employment was to unravel the intricacy of the Prophetefs, and to decypher her equivocal words into proper language. These were the Chiefs of Delphi, elected by lot 45 to the facred ministry, of the God; and they are exprefsly mentioned to be affeffors near the tripod 46. There were many perfons (fays Plutarch 47) who maintained, that men of diftinguifhed poetical genius were placed near the oracular feat on purpose to catch the words, which they inftantly enveloped in rhythm, adapted to these oracles: Thus Strabo 48 afferts, that certain poets attending the fhrine, when the Pythia prophefied in profe, cloathed it in metre. According to this idea Boileau in his L'Art Poetique has affigned this honour of poetical enthusiasm to the Priest,

Du fein d'un Pretre, emu d'une divine horreur,
Apollon par des vers exhala fe fureur.

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Chant. 4. V. 153.

But Vida and Milton 5° have both recognized the confecrated privilege of the infpired Propheteffes. If the women. are jealous of being divefted of this venerable prerogative of poetical talents, without difcuffing the abftrufe question, whether the Priefteffes of Ancient Delphi repeated verfes of their own compofition extempore, I will appeal with evidence irresistible to the Improvvifatrici of Modern Italy; and I will

43 Cicero de Divin. 1. 2. c. 56. f. 115.

45 V. 416.

44 V. 101.

40 V. 415. 47 Ed. Xylan. vol. II. p. 407. 48 L. 9. p. 642. 49 Poet. 1. I. v. 38. so Ad Patrem, v. 25. ed. Newton, vol. III. p. 660.

boldly

boldly affirm, that this effort of female imagination ought not to be degraded into a miracle; for what were the barren refponfes of a Delphick Phemonoe compared with the fublime poetry of the Florentine Corilla? What were a few detached verses of the Græcian Prophetess enclosed in her dark shrine in comparison with the elegant connected rhymes of the Italian Poetefs, who in the prefence of all the Roman Nobility and Foreigners, when crowned in the Capitol at Rome in the year 1777, poured her melodious verses for four hours inceffantly? I heard her myself, when the fubject given was of a nature very difficult, the English order of the Bath, in compliment to the British Minister at Florence, when he received it in 1769; yet this animated Lady delivered her flowing rhapsody without the leaft hesitation, and embellished her sweet poetry with an enchanting voice. The last object of my present confideration is the Oracles themselves: These too had their divination by lot; as we may collect from an expreffion" applied to Apollo: And Callimachus 12 among the attributes of the God enumerates his lots, which the Scholiaft there explains the prophetick pebbles: These I conceive were used to afcertain the order in which the Votaries fhould approach; for the Pythia commands them in Æfchylus 53 to advance by lot; and the epithet fortilegis is applied by Horace to Delphi: In regard to the fubftance of these Oracular responses the memorable apothegm of Heraclitus, preserved in Plutarch ", is the best illuftration of them, "That the God neither declares explicitly, nor conceals en

51 V. 908.

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53 Eumen. v. 32.

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s2 Hym. in Apol. v. 45.

54 Ars Poet. v. 219.

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45. Ούτε λέγει, ὅτε κρύπτει, ἀλλὰ σημαινει. De Pyth. Orac. vol. II. ed. Xyjap, p. 404.

"tirely,

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"tirely, but fuggefts only the figurative hint:" He is unwilling (fays Plutarch "") to fupprefs the truth, but difguifing the manifestation of it by a poetick umbrage, like a ray of light divided into many refractions, he removes the intenfe feverity of it. Thus Ion himself tells Xuthus in the play, that he has mistaken the ænigma " of the refponfe. Yet a much heavier imputation than this political obfcurity often lay against these oracles. Herodotus " and other Authors have recorded inftances of collufion, bribery, and corruption. We are informed by Cicero ", that Chryfippus collected an immenfe quantity of these oracles from the most undoubted fources of information; and in another paffage 6° he tells us, that this book of Chryfippus was filled with Oracles of Apollo, which were partly falfe and partly true by accident, as frequently happens in all difcourfe; and fome were capable of a double construction; of which he mentions the response given to Cræfus and Pyrrhus. Fontenelle in his Hiftoire des Oracles has arranged into one chapter 6 all the hiftorical teftimonies on this fubject, and in another 2 has detected the impofition of them: The very example in the play is a strong argument against the veracity of the Delphick fhrine; for Apollo mifleads Xuthus by the artifice of a palpable falfhood, and by impofing his own fon Ion on the royal ftranger: yet this Oracle of Delphi was held in the highest veneration by Ancient Græce: It had never been fo celebrated or renowned (fays. Cicero 4) nor filled with fo many prefents of all Na

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tions and Sovereigns, unless every age had experienced the veracity of these refponfes: And Strabo obferves that the greatest honour was derived to this Delphick fhrine, because it appeared the most famous for truth: This indeed became a proverbial expreffion among the Greeks: And the credulous Plutarch 67 maintains that the Pythian Priestess had enjoyed a reputation of three thousand years, and that to his time he had flood the test of inquiry, and had never furnished conviction against herself. But now, in those appofite and beautiful lines of Milton,

The Oracles are dumb,

No voice, or hideous hum,

Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving;
Apollo from his fhrine

Can no more divine

With hollow fhriek the fteep of Delphos leaving:
No nightly trance, or breathed fpell

Infpires the pale-ey'd prieft from the prophetick cell.

The Hymn, v. 180. ed. Newton, vol. III. p. 333.

And we may collect from Sir George Whelers the melancholy devastation of time on ancient Delphi; for he fays that the town of Caftri confifts of not above two hundred houses, and thofe very ill built; and of a church called St. Helias, where he found fome pieces of white marble with infcriptions on them, he observes, that this feems to be the place most likely for the temple of Apollo to have been fituated in.

65 L. 9. p. 642.

66 Τὰ ἀπὸ ἢ ἐκ τρίποδος (Zenob. Cent. 6. 3. Diogen. Cent. 8. 21. Suidæ, Cent. 13. 7. 11. Proverbia Græca ab Andreâ

Schotto, p. 152. 251. 539.) 67 De Pyth. Orac. ed. Xylan. vol. II. p. 408. gs Travels into Græce, b. IV. p. 314 & 315•

Having now detained my reader too long, I fhall dismiss him with this observation, that the fubject of the Ion has all that majefty, which the Tragick Mufe demands: The Characters are of the most royal quality; and the fcene of the drama is laid in the most confecrated spot of Antiquity; fo that Religion and Policy mutually confpire to the elevation of this tragedy. If I may be indulged with borrowing the allegory from the fubject, Euripides is the Delphick God, who breathes the divine original Oracle; the English Translator is the infpired Pythia, who communicates it embellished with the charm of Poetry; the Commentator may be considered as the fubordinate Prophet 69, who is the humble Expounder of the mysterious Refponfe; and the Reader I truft will be the ardent Votary, not at the degrading footstool of humiliating Superftition, but at the exalted fhrine of fublime Genius.

69 Ωςπερ Θεῶν ἱεροφανταὶ καὶ δαδέχοι τῆς σοφίας ὄντες, ὅσα πὲρ ἐςὶ ἐν δυνάτῳ, ταύλα μιμεῖσθαι καὶ περικνίζειν ἐπιχειρῶμεν. Plut. De Liber. Educan. ed. Xylan. vol. II. p. 10.

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