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ter thundering above, Neptune shaking the 

 earth beneath, and Pluto starting; from 

 his throne with terror, lest his secret and 

 dreary abodes should be burst open to the 

 day. From this short exposition the read- 

 er may judge what is the principle on 

 which the sublimity of this passage is 

 founded. 



The most sublime passage, according to 

 my idea, in Virgil, or perhaps in any other 

 poet, is that magnificent personification of 

 a thunder storm. 



Ipse Pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca. 

 Fulmina molitur dextra, quo maxima motu 

 Terra tremit, fugere ferae, & mortalia corda 

 Per gentes humilis stravit pavor, — Ule flagranti 

 Aut Atho aut Rhodopen, ant alta Ceraunia telo 

 Dejicit. 



Divest these two passages of terror, what 

 remains? In this last particularly, the 

 sublime opposition between the cause and 

 the effect of terror, more strongly than in 

 any other illustrates the principle. And I 

 may here observe, that one circumstance 

 which gives peculiar grandeur to personifi- 



