vates us.

oppofite direction is not pofitively painful, though our pleasure leffens at every step, till it vanish into indifference. Such a progrefs may fometimes produce a pleasure of a different fort, which arifes from taking a narrower and narrower inspection. The fame obfervation is applicable to a progrefs upward and downward, Afcent is pleasant because it eleBut descent is never painful: it is for the most part pleasant from a different caufe, that it is according to the order of nature. The fall of a ftone from any height, is extremely agreeable by its accelerated motion. I feel it pleasant to defcend from a mountain: the defcent is natural and easy. Neither is looking downward painful. On the contrary, to look down upon objects, makes part of the pleasure of elevation. Looking down becomes then only painful when the object is so far below as to create dizziness: and even when that is the cafe, we feel a fort of pleasure mixt with the pain. Witnefs Shakespear's description of Dover cliffs :

How fearful

And dizzy 'tis, to caft one's eyes fo low!
The crows and choughs, that wing the midway-air,
Shew scarce fo grofs as beetles. Half-way down
Hangs one, that gathers famphire; dreadful trade !
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
The fishermen that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yon tall anchoring bark
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for fight. The murmuring furge,
That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard fo high. I'll look no more,
Left my brain turn, and the deficient fight
Topple down headlong.

King Lear, at 4. fc. 6.

An obfervation is made above, that the emotions of grandeur and fublimity are nearly allied. Hence

it

it is, that the one term is frequently put for the other. I give an example. An increasing series of numbers produceth an emotion fimilar to that of mounting upward, and for that reason is commonly · termed an afcending feries. A feries of numbers gradually decreasing, produceth an emotion fimilar to that of going downward, and for that reason is commonly termed a defcending feries. We talk familiarly of going up to the capital, and of going down to the country. From a leffer kingdom we talk of going up to a greater, whence the anabafis in the Greek language when one travels from Greece to Perfia. We discover the fame way of: speaking in the language even of Japan *; and its univerfality proves it the offspring of a natural. feeling.

The foregoing obfervation leads us naturally to confider grandeur and fublimity in a figurative fenfe,, and as applicable to the fine arts. Hitherto I have confidered these terms in their proper meaning, as applicable to objects of fight only: and I thought it of importance, to beftow fome pains upon that article; because, generally fpeaking, the figurative fenfe of a word is derived from its proper fenfe; which will be found to hold in the prefent fubject. Beauty in its original fignification, is confined to objects of fight. But as many other objects, in-tellectual as well as moral, raife emotions refem-bling that of beauty, the refemblance of the effects prompts us naturally to extend the term beauty to thefe objects. This equally accounts for the terms: grandeur and fublimity taken in a figurative sense. Every emotion, from whatever caufe proceeding, that resembles an emotion of grandeur or elevation, is called by the fame name. Thus generofity is

faid to be an elevated emotion, as well as great courage; and that firmness of foul which is fu

*Kempfer's hiftory of a Japan, b. 5. ch. 2..

perior

perior to misfortunes, obtains the peculiar name of magnanimity. On the other hand, every emotion that contracts the mind and fixeth it upon things trivial or of no importance, is termed low, by its resemblance to an emotion produced by a little or low object of fight. Thus an appetite for trifling amufements, is called a low tafte. The fame terms are applied to characters and actions. We talk familiarly of an elevated genius, of a great man, and equally fo of littleness of mind. Some actions are great and elevated, others are low and groveling. Sentiments and even expreffions are characterised in the fame manner. An expreflion or sentiment

that raises the mind, is denominated great or elevated; and hence the fublime in poetry. In fuch 'figurative terms, the diftinction is loft that is made betwixt great and elevated in their proper fense; for the resemblance is not fo entire, as to preferve thefe terms diftin&t in their figurative application. We carry this figure ftill farther. Elevation in its proper fenfe, includes fuperiority of place; and lownefs, inferiority of place. Hence a man of fuperior talents, of fuperior rank, of inferior parts, of inferior taste, and fuch like. The veneration we

have

*Longinus gives a pretty good defcription of the sublime, though not entirely juft in every one of the circumstances, "That the mind is elevated by it, and so fenfi"bly affected as to fwell in tranfport and inward pride,

as if what is only heard or read, were its own inventi❝tion." But he adheres not to this defcripion. In his 6th chapter he juftly obferves, that many pations have nothing of the grand, fuch as grief, fear, pity, which deprefs the mind inftead of raifing it, And yet in-chapter Sth, he mentions Sappho's ode upon love as fublime. Beautiful it is undoubtedly, but it cannot be fublime, because it really depreffes the mind inftead of railing it. His tranflator Boileau is not mare successful in his inftances. 'In his 10th reflection he cites a paffage from Demofthenes and another from Herodotus as fublime, which are not so.

have for our ancestors and for the ancients in general, being fimilar to the emotion produced by an elevated object of fight, justifies the figurative expreffion, of the ancients being raised above us, or poffeffing a fuperior place. And we may remark by the way, that as words are intimately connected with ideas, many, by this form of expreffion, are led to conceive their ancestors as really above them in place, and their posterity below them:

A grandam's name is little lefs in love
Than is the doting title of a mother:
They are as children but one step below.
Richard III. a

4. Sc. 5. The notes of the gamut, proceeding regularly from the blunter or groffer founds to those which are more acute and piercing, produce in the hearer a feeling fomewhat fimilar to what is produced by mounting upward; and this gives occafion to the figurative expreffions, a bigh note, a low note.

Such is the refemblance in feeling betwixt real and figurative grandeur, that among the nations, on the east coast of Afric, who are directed purely by nature, the different dignities of the officers of ftate are marked by the length of the batoon each carries in his hand. And in Japan, princes and great lords fhew their rank by the length and fize of their fedan poles*. Again, it is a rule in painting, that figures of a small size are proper for grotefque pieces; but that in an historical subject, which is grand and important, the figures ought to be as great as the life. The resemblance of thefe feelings is in reality fo ftrong, that elevation in a figurative sense is obferved to have the fame effect even externally, that real elevation has :

K. Henry. This day is called the feast of Cristpian. He that outlives this day, and comes fafe home,

Will

*Kempfer's hiftory of Japan.

Will stand a tiptoe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crifpian.

Henry V. a 4. fc. 8.

The refemblance in feeling betwixt real and figurative grandeur, is humorously illuftrated by Addifon in criticifing upon the English tragedy.` "The

ordinary method of making an hero, is to clap a "huge plume of feathers upon his head, which ri

fes fo high, that there is often a greater length "from his chin to the top of his head, than to the fole of his foot. One would believe, that we *thought a great man and a tall man the fame "thing. As these fuperfluous ornaments upon the "head make a great man, a princess generally re"ceives her grandeur from those additional incum"brances that fall into her tail. I mean the broad fweeping train that follows her in all her mo❝tions, and finds conftant employment for a boy "who ftands behind her to open and spread it to "advantage *" The Scythians, impreffed with the fame of Alexander, were aftonished when they found him a little man.

A gradual progrefs from fmall to great, is not lefs remarkable in figurative than in real grandeur or elevation. Every one must have observed the delightful effect of a number of thoughts or fentiments, artfully difpofed like an ascending feries, and making impreffions ftronger and stronger. Such difpofition of members in a period, is distinguished by a proper name, being termed a cli

max.

In order to have a juft conception of grandeur and fublimity, it is neceffary to be obferved, that within certain limits they produce their strongest effects, which leffen by excefs as well as by defect. This is remarkable in grandeur and fublimity taken in their proper

*Spectator, N° 42.