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he had taken, there did' n'ot" occur to him any fublime objed, into 

 the idea of which power, ftrength and force either enter not 

 diredly or are not at leaft intimately affociated with the idea, by 

 leading our thoughts to fome aflonifhing power, as concerned 

 in the produdion of the objed. The refleding mind of Dodor 

 Blair may be led by the confideration of each of the objeds 

 ■which he has mentioned to the contemplation of power, but I 

 apprehend that in fome of thofe cafes the fublimity of the ob- 

 jed may be perceived without any fuch refledion. The view of 

 an extended plain may expand with admiration the mind of him 

 who does not think of the power that formed it ; and endlefs 

 numbers, which Dodor Blair confiders as filling the mind witTi 

 great ideas, do not neceflarily lead us to a metaphyfical view of 

 the powers of the underftanding by which the modes of num- 

 ber are combined. With regard to the moral or fentimental 

 fublime, Dodor Blair would fay, that we are affeded by the 

 energy of charader which we obferve in our fellow-creatures ; buf 

 I am inclined to think that the ordinary confideration of fuch 

 examples of mental fuperiority reaches no farther than a moral 

 approbation of what is efteemed worthy of the dignity of our 

 nature. 



Such are the accounts which have hitherto been given of the 

 origin and nature of the fublime. That of Longinus gives us np 

 afliftance, but each of the others, though imperfed, appears to be 

 founded in nature. I agree io far with the author of the philo- 

 fophical enquiry as to think that in fome cafes terror may heigh- 

 ten our perception of fublimity. ; I fo far agree, with Dodor 



Prieflley 



