der the name of Magnanimity or Heroifm; LECT. and they produce an effect extremely fimilar to what is produced by the view of grand objects in nature; filling the mind with admiration, and elevating it above itfelf. A noted inftance of this, quoted by all the French Critics, is the celebrated Qu'il Mourut of Corneille, in the Tragedy of Horace. In the famous combat betwixt the Horatii and the Curiatii, the old Horatius, being informed, that two of his fons are flain, and that the third had betaken himself to flight, at first will not believe the report; but being thoroughly affured of the fact, is fired with all the fentiments of high honour and indignation at this fuppofed unworthy behaviour of his furviving fon. He is reminded, that his fon stood alone against three, and afked what he wifhed him to have done?" To have died,"-he anfwers. In the fame manner Porus, taken prifoner by Alexander, after a gallant defence, and asked how he wished to be treated? anfwering, "Like a king;" and Cæfar chiding the pilot who was afraid to fet out with him in a storm, "Quid times? Cæfarem "vehis;" are good inftances of this fentimental Sublime. Wherever, in fome critical and high fituation, we behold a man uncommonly intrepid, and refting upon himself; fuperior to paffion and to fear; animated by fome great principle to the contempt of popuСахновение брее

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lar

LECT. lar opinion, of felfifh intereft, of dangers, or of death; there we are ftruck with a fenfe of the Sublime *.

HIGH virtue is the most natural and fertile fource of this moral Sublimity. However, on' fome occafions, where Virtue either has no place, or is but imperfectly difplayed, yet if extraordinary vigour and force of mind be difcovered, we are not infenfible to a degree of grandeur in the character; and from the fplendid conqueror, or the daring confpirator, whom we are far from approving, we cannot with-hold our admiration †.

I HAVE

*The Sublime, in natural and in moral objects, is brought before us in one view, and compared together, in the following beautiful pafiage of Akenfide's Pleafures of the Imagination:

Look then abroad through nature; to the range
Of planets, funs, and adamantine spheres,
Wheeling, unshaken, through the void immenfe ;
And fpeak, O man! does this capacious fcene,
With half that kindling.majefty, dilate
Thy ftrong conception, as when Brutus rofe
Refulgent, from the ftroke of Cæfar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots; and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove,

When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud

On Tully's name, and fhook his crimafon fteel,
And bade the father of his country hail !

For lo! the tyrant proftrate on the duft;
And Rome again is free.-

Book I.

+ Silius Italicus has ftudied to give an auguft idea of Hannibal, by reprefenting him as furrcunded with all his

victories,

I HAVE now enumerated a variety of in. LECT. stances, both in inanimate objects and in human life, wherein the Sublime appears. In all these instances, the emotion raised in us is of the fame kind, although the objects that produce the emotion be of widely different kinds. A queftion next arifes, whether we are able to difcover fome one fundamental quality in which all these different objects agree, and which is the cause of their producing an emotion of the fame nature in our minds? Various hypothefes have been formed concerning this; but, as far as appears to me,

victories, in the place of guards. One who had formed a defign of affaffinating him in the midst of a feaft, is thus addreffed:

Fallit te, menfas inter quod credis inermem;

Tot bellis quæfita viro, tot cædibus, armat
Majeftas æterna ducem. Si admoveris ora

Cannas, & Trebiam ante oculos, Trafymenaque basta
Et Pauli ftare ingentem miraberis umbram.

A thought somewhat of the fame nature occurs in a French
author: Il fe cache; mais fa reputation le decouvre: Il
"marche fans fuite & fans equipage; mais chacun, dans
"fon efprit, le met fur un char de triomphe. On compte,

en le voiant, les ennemis qu'il a vaincus, non pas les fer"viteurs qui le fuivent. Tout feul qu'il eft, on fe figure, 66 autour de lui, fes vertus, & fes victoires que l'accompagnent. Moins il eft fuperbe, plus il devient vene"rable." Oraifon funebre de M. de Turenne, par M. Flechier. Both these paffages are fplendid, rather than fublime. In the firft, there is a want of juftnefs in the thought; in the econd, of fimplicity in the expreflion.

HI.

LECT. hitherto unfatisfactory. Some have imagined that amplitude, or great extent, joined with fimplicity, is either immediately, or remotely, the fundamental quality of whatever is fublime; but we have feen that amplitude. is confined to one fpecies of Sublime Objects; and cannot, without violent ftraining, be applied to them all. The Author of "a Phi❝lofophical Enquiry into the Origin of our "Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," to whom we are indebted for feveral ingenious and original thoughts upon this fubject, propofes a formal theory upon this foundation, That terror is the fource of the Sublime, and that no objects have this character, but fuch as produce impreffions of pain and danger. It is indeed true, that many terrible objects are highly fublime; and that grandeur does. not refuse an alliance with the idea of danger. But though this is very properly illuftrated by the Author (many of whofe fentiments on that head I have adopted), yet he seems to stretch his theory too far, when he represents the Sublime as confifting wholly in modes of danger, or of pain. For the proper fenfation of Sublimity appears to be very diftinguishable from the fenfation of either of thefe; and, on feveral occafions, to be entirely separated from them. In many grand objects, there is no coincidence with terror at all; as in the magnificent profpect of wide extended plains, and

of the starry firmament; or in the moral difpofi- LEC T. tions and fentiments, which we view with high admiration; and in many painful and terrible objects alfo, it is clear, there is no fort of grandeur. The amputation of a limb, or the bite of a snake, are exceedingly terrible; but are deftitute of all claim whatever to Sublimity. I am inclined to think, that mighty force or power, whether accompanied with terror or not, whether employed in protecting, or in alarming us, has a better title, than any thing that has yet been mentioned, to be the fundamental quality of the Sublime; as, after the review which we have taken, there does not occur to me any Sublime Object, into the idea of which, power, strength, and force, either enter not directly, or are not, at leaft, intimately affociated with the idea, by leading our thoughts to fome aftonishing power, as concerned in the production of the object. However, I do not infift upon this as fufficient to found a general theory: It is enough to have given this view of the nature and different kinds of Sublime Objects; by which I hope to have laid a proper foundation for difcuffing, with greater accuracy, the Sublime in Writing and Compofition.

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