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admiration of the Great Author of the Univerfe with which iht 

 view of the former infpires us, is not the difpofition with which 

 we behold the //..«^^/-^^^^«^'"^>'^ of the latter. In the awful 

 fublime of nature terror then may have place ; but that terror, if 

 very great, will be deftrudive of the fublime, by withdrawing 

 our attention from the objed. An example will beft iUuftratc 

 this variety of our emotions. The unbounded view of a calm 

 fea will fill the mind with the pleafing emotion of the fublime. 

 If the fea be agitated by a violent ftorm, whilft the fpedator is 

 feeurely placed on a promontory, the emotion of fublimity will. 

 I think, be increafed by the idea of irrefiftible force which its 

 agitation will fuggeft ; but as that force is exhibited to us in 

 circumftances of danger to thofe who fhould be expofed to it, 

 the emotion will now become of the more awful kind. ^ If the 

 fpedator behold a fhip in thoffe circumftances of danger, his terror 

 will become much more lively, but his fympathy with the un- 

 fortunate fufFerers will no longer permit him to contemplate thd- 

 wild magnificence of the ocean. If he is himfelf in danger, his 

 attention is ftill more effbdually withdrawn from it and direded 

 to one fingle objed, the means of efcaping. It appears then 

 that the fublime of nature may be heightened by terror, fo far 

 as that terror does not prevent us from attending to the whole 

 of the great objed which infpires it. This does not confine 

 v^ithin fuch narrow limits the fublime of defcription as that of 

 nature. The affbdions are principles defigned for adion, and 

 mere defcription will not fo eafily excite them to a degree in- 

 confiftent with that felf-poffeffion which is requifitc to the per- 



( D 2 ) ceplion 



