we difcern in them; but when we attempt to LECT. go a step beyond this, and enquire what is the cause of regularity and variety producing in our minds the fenfation of Beauty, any reason we can affign is extremely imperfect. These first principles of internal fenfation, nature seems to have covered with an impenetrable veil.

It is fome comfort, however, that although the efficient caufe be obfcure, the final cause of those fenfations lies in many cafes more open And, in entering on this fubject, we cannot avoid taking notice of the ftrong impreffion which the powers of Tafte and Imagination are calculated to give us of the benignity of our Creator. By endowing us with fuch powers, he hath widely enlarged the fphere of the pleafures of human life; and thofe, too, of a kind the most pure and innocent. The neceffary purposes of life might have been abundantly answered, though our fenses of seeing and hearing had only served to distinguish external objects, without conveying to us any of those refined and delicate fenfations of Beauty and Grandeur, with which we are now fo much delighted. This additional embellishment and glory, which, for promoting our entertainment, the Author of nature hath poured forth upon his works, is one striking teftimony, among many others,

LECT. others, of benevolence and goodnefs. This thought, which Mr. Addison first started, Dr. Akenfide, in his Poem on the Pleasures of the Imagination, has happily pursued.

Not content

With every food of life to nourish man,
By kind illufions of the wondering fenfe,
Thou mak'st all nature, Beauty to his eye,
Or Mufic to his ear.

I SHALL begin with confidering the Pleasure which arifes from Sublimity or Grandeur, of which I propose to treat at fome length; both, as this has a character more precife and diftinctly marked, than any other, of the Pleafures of the Imagination, and as it coincides. more directly with our main fubject. For the greater diftinctnefs I fhall, firft, treat of the Grandeur or Sublimity of external objects themselves, which will employ the rest of this Lecture; and, afterwards, of the defcription of fuch objects, or of what is called the Sublime in Writing, which fhall be the fubject of a following Lecture. I diftinguish these two things from one another, the Grandeur of the objects themfelves when they are prefented to the eye, and the defcription of that Grandeur in difcourfe or writing; though most Critics, inaccurately I think, blend them together; and I confider Grandeur and Sublimity as terms fynonymous, or nearly fo.

If there be any distinction between them, it LECT. arifes from Sublimity's expreffing Grandeur in its highest degree *.

It is not easy to defcribe, in words, the precife impreffion which great and fublime objects make upon us, when we behold them; but every one has a conception of it. It produces a fort of internal elevation and expanfion; it raifes the mind much above its ordinary ftate; and fills it with a degree of wonder and aftonishment, which it cannot well exprefs. The emotion is certainly delightful; but it is altogether of the ferious kind: a degree of awfulness, and folemnity, even approaching to feverity, commonly attends it when at its height; very diftinguishable from the more gay and brifk emotion raised by beautiful objects.

THE fimpleft form of external Grandeur appears in the vaft and boundless profpects prefented to us by nature; fuch as wide extended plains to which the eye can fee no limits; the firmament of Heaven; or the boundless expanfe of the Ocean. All vaftness produces the impreffion of Sublimity. It is to be remarked, however, that space, extended in

* See a Philofophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Dr. Gerard on Taste, Section II. Elements of Criticifm, Chap. IV.

length,

Ill.

LECT. length, makes not fo ftrong an impreffion as height or depth. Though a boundless plain be a grand object, yet a high mountain, to which we look up, or an awful precipice or tower whence we look down on the objects which lie below, is ftill more fo. The exceffive Grandeur of the firmament arifes from its height, joined to its boundless extent; and that of the ocean, not from its extent alone, but from the perpetual motion and irresistible force of that mafs of waters. Wherever space is concerned, it is clear, that amplitude or greatnefs of extent, in one dimenfion or other, is neceffary to Grandeur. Remove all bounds from any object, and you prefently render it fublime. Hence infinite space, endless numbers, and eternal duration, fill the mind with great ideas.

FROM this fome have imagined, that vaftnefs, or amplitude of extent, is the foundation of all Sublimity. But I cannot be of this opinion, because many objects appear fublime which have no relation to space at all. Such, for inftance, is great loudness of found. The burst of thunder or of cannon, the roaring of winds, the shouting of multitudes, the found of vaft cataracts of water, are all inconteftibly grand objects. "I heard the voice of a great "multitude, as the found of many waters, and of mighty thunderings, faying Alleju

I

"jah,"

"jah."

III.

In general we may obferve, that LECT. great power and force exerted, always raise fublime ideas: and perhaps the most copious source of these is derived from this quarter. Hence the grandeur of earthquakes and burning mountains; of great conflagrations; of the ftormy ocean, and overflowing waters; of tempefts of wind; of thunder and lightning; and of all the uncommon violence of the ele- es ments. Nothing is more fublime than mighty power and ftrength. A ftream that runs within its banks, is a beautiful object; but when it rushes down with the impetuofity and noise of a torrent, it prefently becomes a sub- ;; lime one. From lions, and other animals A of ftrength, are drawn fublime comparisons in poets. A race horfe is looked upon with pleasure; but it is the war-horse," whofe "neck is clothed with thunder," that carries grandeur in its idea. The engagement of two great armies, as it is the highest exertion of human might, combines a variety of fources of the Sublime; and has accordingly been always confidered as one of the moft ftriking and her 200 magnificent spectacles that can be either prefented to the eye, or exhibited to the imagination in description.

FOR the farther illuftration of this subject, it is proper to remark, that all ideas of the folemn and awful kind, and even bordering on