188 



ate from it insensibly: the great in many 

 cases loves the right line, and when it de- 

 viates, makes a strong deviation : beauty, 

 should not be obscure ; the great ought to 

 be dark and gloomy : beauty should be light 

 and delicate ; the great ought to be solid, 

 and even massive." 



This is the skeleton of Mr. Burke's sys- 

 tem of the sublime and beautiful, and of the 

 distinction between the two characters. As 

 far as I have been able to observe, his prin- 

 ciples of the sublime are more generally 

 admitted thanthoseof the beautiful; which, 

 if true, may be easily accounted for : we 

 have been used to consider the terrible as a 

 principal source of the sublime in poetry, 

 and therefore were prepared to have that 

 principle extended to the whole compass of 

 visible objects, and to have it founded on 

 the great basis of self-preservation : but with 

 respect to the beautiful, we had ngt the same 

 preparation ; and, as we have been accus- 

 tomed to apply the term in a very vague 

 and licentious manner, his attempt to re* 

 strain the sense within more exact and narrow 



