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Prkftley as to admit that in fome cafes the efFed of the fublimc 

 is to keep the mind in a kind of a-wful Jiillnefs, and that extreme 

 agitation is inconfiftent with it. With Lord Kaims, I think that 

 the true method of inveftigating its principle is to trace the ana- 

 logy between the efFeas of vifible and mental objeds ; and with 

 Dodor Blair, I am of opinion that mighty force or power is fre- 

 quently a caufe of the fublimc, though in fome cafes the confi- 

 deration of it appears to be rather a philofophical inference than 

 a part of the fenfation. If it be true that thefe feveral fyftems • 

 have a foundation in nature, and the examples adduced by their 

 refpedive authors appear fufficiently to warrant the opinion, a 

 confiftent fcheme which fhould reconcile them with each other 

 would have fome pretenfion to be confidered as giving a true ac- 

 count of the fublime. 



I HAVE already obferved that Lord Kaims appears to have 

 adopted the true method of inveftigating the principle of the 

 fublime. In every language the name of that emotion, by what- 

 foever objed it may have been excited, has been derived from the 

 magnitude or elevation of vifible objeds. His view of vifible 

 fublimity appears however to have been confined. He defcribes 

 the emotion excited by it as extremely pleafant, though diftin- 

 guifhcd from that occafioned by beauty in being rather ferious 

 than gay, and confiders the qualities that contribute to beauty as 

 efl-ential to it. It is, according to his idea, beauty on a larger 

 fcale. From this idea he has however departed in the example of 

 figurative fublimity, which he has taken from Oflian. In the con- 



V°"-^- (D) Aid 



