[' 3° ] 



than thofe of inanimate nature. In the Ode of Horace, to which 

 I have already alluded, we fee every circumftance of political and 

 natural terror, and even the wrath of fuch a Deity as Paganifm 

 could form, introduced merely as fubordinate to the difplay of 

 tlie firm intrepidity of the juft man. We are not fo much 

 afFeded bv the great image of a broken world as by that of him 

 who receives the fhock undaunted. 



The laft and higheft clafs of fublime objeds comprehends 

 fuperior beings, and more efpecially the Supreme Being. This, like 

 the firft, includes objedls which excite emotions of different kinds. 

 Superior beings may excite in us emotions of fublimity, either by 

 circumftances of terror, or by a difplay of unwearied goodnefs 

 employed in the protedion of mortal weaknefs. As an example 

 of the fublime of this kind, divefted of all terror, I will refer 

 to the morning hymn of our firft anceftors, in which with holy 

 rapture they addrefs the Parent of Good, and call on all nature 

 to join in his praife. Do£tor Blair has quoted from the Prophet 

 Habakkuk a defcription of the appearance of God, heightened 

 by every circumftance of terror: " He ftood and meafured the 

 " earth; he beheld and drove afunder the nations; the everlaft- 

 " ing mountains were fcattered ; the perpetual hills did bow ; 

 " his ways are everlafting. The mountains faw thee and they 

 " trembled ; the overflowing of the water paffed by ; the deep 

 " uttered his voice and lifted up his hands on high." The fame 

 qualities, which have been already mentioned in treating of the 

 other clafles, muft furnifh us with our beft conceptions of fuperior 



beings. 



