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Lord Kaims appears to me to have adopted the true princi- 

 ple of iuveftigation, thouj,h, as 1 have already obferved, a love 

 of f fteai prevented hi n from tracing all its confequences. He 

 defines figurative fnblimity by the refemblance of the emotion 

 which it excites, to that which is caufed by the grandeur or eleva- 

 tion of vifible otjedts. In this he appears to have followed na- 

 ture, for he is fupported by the analogy of language ; and had 

 he confidered the different emotions which great and elevated 

 vifible objedls occafion in different circumftances, this effay (hould 

 not have been written j but he has attended only to the chearful 

 emotion of fublimity. A huge impending rock Lord Kaims 

 muft have admitted to be poffeffed both of grandeur and eleva- 

 tion, and yet I apprehend that the view of fuch an obje£t de- 

 rives much of its effe£t from its influence in finking the mind of 

 the fpedator. A gothic church is mentioned by him as an in- 

 ftance of the fublime amongfl the works of art, and furely the 

 gloomy depreflion which is occafioned by its darknefs vifible is 

 not a diminution of its grandeur. Had Lord Kaims confidered 

 this difference amongfl the emotions which fublime vifible ob- 

 jeds excite, he would not I think have given up to Huet the 

 judgment of Longinus. The mind does indeed " fink down 

 " into humility and veneration for a being fo far exalted above 

 " groveling mortals," but the fublime objed prefented in this 

 magnificent defcription of creation is not the human mind. The 

 all-powerful Creator is the objed, and the mind of a Newton 

 cannot contemplate him without humiliation. 



It remains that I fhould make fome remarks on the conjec- 

 ture of Dodor Blair. He tells us that after the review which 



he 



