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is at the fame time capable of producing the moft vehement 

 emotions, it feems to me in many inftances capable of fublime 

 defcription. Should Sappho's Ode notwithftanding be thought 

 deficient in fublimity, fome reafons might be affigned for this, 

 confiftent with the principles already laid down. The opening 

 of this Ode feems too beautiful to convey any idea of a foul 

 violently agitated ; it defcribes the charms of the beloved objed, 

 and makes thefe the ground of thofe vehement emotions which 

 break out in the following part. The tranfition is not ftrongly 

 marked, nor of courfe are the former impreffions entirely done 

 away. But what I take to be leaft congenial to the fublime is 

 the charaaer of the fubjefl, who is of fo tender and delicate a 

 nature, that we do not look for any vigorous effort of refift- 

 ance, but on the contrary are led to fuppofe that the foul 

 hath been fondly furrendered to the influence of the paflion. 

 The fame fentiments, I believe, coming from a Arm and refo- 

 lute heart, which had long flruggled in vain againft the uncon- 

 troulable ftrength of paflion, might perhaps excite emotions 

 kindred to the fublime. No paffion can be confidered as 

 wholly abftraded from the fubjed in which it is found, and 

 the fubjed muft confequently have a powerful effbd in de- 

 ciding the charader of the paflion. In the charader of Othello, 

 which is that of a generous warrior, the paflion is defcribed iri 

 its various ftagcs and progrefs, from the moft abfolute content 

 to the laft fatal exceflbs of jcaloufy and defpalr. Some of thofc 

 pafl"3ges may I think be called fublime: 



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