Diluit. Inplentur foffeæ, et cava flumina crefcunt In the defcription of a ftorm, to figure Jupiter throwing down huge mountains with his thunder-bolts, is hyperbollically fublime, if I may use the expreffion : the tone of mind produced by that image is fo diftant from the tone produced by a thick fhower of rain, that the fudden tranfition must be unpleasant. Objects of fight that are not remarkably great nor high, fcarce raife any emotion of grandeur or of fublimity and the fame holds in other objects; for we often find the mind roused and animated, without being carried to that height. This difference may be difcerned in many forts of mufic, as well as in fome mufical inftruments: a kettle drum roufes, and a hautboy is animating; but neither of them infpires an emotion of fublimity: revenge animates the mind in a confiderable degree; but I think it never produceth an emotion that can be termed grand or fublime; and I fhall have occafion afterward to obferve, that no difagreeable paflion ever has that effect. I am willing to put this to the test, by placing before my reader a moft fpirited picture of revenge: it is 2 fpeech of Antony wailing over the body of Cæfar : Wo to the hand that fhed this coftly blood! (Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, Domestic. Domestic fury, and fierce civil ftrife, That mothers fhall but fmile when they behold Julius Cæfar, act 3. Sc. 4. No defire is more univerfal than to be exalted and honoured; and upon that account chiefly are we ambitious of power, riches, titles, fame, which would fuddenly lose their relifh, did they not raife us above others, and command fubmiffion and deference ;* and it may be thought that our attachment to things grand and lofty proceeds from their connection with our favourite paffion. This connection has undoubtedly an effect; but that the preference given to things grand and lofty must have a deeper root in human nature, will appear from confidering, that many beftow their time upon low and trifling amufements, without having the leaft tincture of this favourite paffion yet these very perfons talk the fame language with the reft of mankind, and prefer the more elevated pleasures: they acknowledge a more refined taste, and are ashamed of their own as low and groveling. This fentiment, conftant and universal, must. be the work of nature, and it plainly indicates an original *Honeftum per fe effe expetendum indicant pueri, in quibus, ut in fpeculis, natura cernitur. Quanta fludia decertantium funt ! Quanta ipfa certamina! Ut illi efferuntur lætitia, cum vicerunt! Ut pudet vielos! Ut fe accufari nolunt ! Ut cupiunt laudari! Quos illi labores non perferunt, ut æqualium principes fint! Cicero de fimbus. VOL. I. N original attachment in human nature to every object that elevates the mind: fome men may have a greater relish for an object not of the highest rank; but they are confcious of the preference given by mankind in general to things grand and fublime; and they are fenfible that their peculiar tafte ought to yield to the general taste. What is faid above fuggefts a capital rule for reaching the fublime in fuch works of art as are sufceptible of it; and that is, to prefent those parts or circumftances only which make the greatest figure, keeping out of view every thing low or trivial; for the mind, elevated by an important object, cannot, without reluctance, be forced down to bestow any fhare of its attention upon. trifles. Such judicious felection of capital circumstances, is by an eminent critic ftyled grandeur of manner.*. In none of the fine arts is there fo great a fcope for that rule as in poetry; which, by that means, enjoys a remarkable power of bestowing upon objects and events an air of grandeur: when we are spectators, every minute object prefents itself in its order; but, in defcribing at fecond hand, these are laid afide, and the capital objects are brought close together. A judicious taste in thus felecting the moft interesting incidents, to give them an united force, accounts for a fact that may appear furprifing; which is, that we are more moved by a fpirited narrative at fecond hand, than by being spectators of the event itself, in all ies circumftances. Longinus exemplifies the foregoing rule by a comparison of two paffages. The firft, from Áriftæus, is thus tranflated: Ye * Spectator, No. 415. ↑ Chap. 8. of the Sublime. Ye pow'rs, what madnefs! how on fhips fo frail No ease their hearts, no reft their eyes can find, The other, from Homer, I fhall give in Pope's tranf lation: Burft as a wave that from the cloud impends, ment. In the latter paffage, the most striking circumstances are felected to fill the mind with terror and astonishThe former is a collection of minute and low circumstances which fcatter the thought, and make no impreffion: it is at the fame time full of verbal antithefes and low conceit, extremely im proper in a scene of diftrefs. But this laft obferva tion belongs to another head. The following defcription of a battle is remarkably fublime, by collecting together, in the fewest words, thofe circumstances which make the greatest figure. Like Autumn's dark storms pouring from two echoing hills, toward each other approached the heroes: as two dark streams from high rocks meet and roar on the plain, loud, rough, and dark in battle, meet Lochlin and Inisfail. Chief Chief mixes his ftrokes with chief, and man with man: fteel founds on teel, and helmets are cleft on high; blood burfts and fmokes around: ftrings murmur on the polish'd yew darts rush along the fky: fpears fall like fparks of flame that gild the ftormy face of night. As the noife of the troubled ocean when roll the waves on high, as the laft peal of thundering heaven, fuch is the noife of battle. Though Cormac's hundred bards were there, feeble were the voice of a hundred bards to fend the deaths to future times; for many were the deaths of the heroes, and wide poured the blood of the valiant. Fing al. The following paffage in the 4th book of the Iliad is a defcription of a battle wonderfully ardent. "When now gathered on either fide, the hofts plunged together in fight; fhield is harfhly laid to fhield; fpears crafh on the brazen corflets; boffy buckler with buckler meets; loud tumult rages over all; groans are mixed with boafts of men; the flain and flayer join in noife; the earth is floating round with blood. As when two rufhing ftreams from two mountains come roaring down, and throw together their rapid waters below, they roar along the gulphy vale. The ftartled fhepherd hears the found, as he ftalks o'er the diftant hills; fo, as they mixed in fight, from both armies clamour with loud terror arofe." But fuch general defcriptions are not frequent in Homer. Even his fingle combats are rare. The fifth book is the longest account of a battle that is in the Iliad; and yet contains nothing but a long catalogue of chiefs killing chiefs, not in fingle com bat neither, but at a distance, with an arrow or javelin; and these chiefs named for the first time and the laft. The fame fcene is continued through a great part of the fixth book. There is at the fame time a minute defcription of every wound, which for accuracy may do honour to an anatomift, but in an epię poem |