pear to me very vague and unsatisfactory , 

 instead of attempting any other, I will do, 

 what perhaps may be of more service in 

 ascertaining its meaning : I will endeavour 

 to account for the introduction of a word 

 into modern languages, which has nothing 

 that in the smallest degree corresponds with 

 it in those of the ancients. The two classes 

 of visible objects which have been dis- 

 tinguished by the titles of the sublime, and 

 the beautiful, have, in all ages, and in all 

 countries, long before the invention of the 

 art of painting, excited the emotions of 

 astonishment, and of pleasure : it seems 

 natural therefore that such objects, when 

 their true character was fully and happily 

 expressed in painting, should at once have 

 been felt and acknowledged to be the 

 same, which had so often struck and pleased 

 them in reality; and that the emotions, 

 though less powerful, should have been of 

 a similar kind. Such probably was the 

 case, with this difference however; that 

 the character and qualities of beauty, lose 

 much less of their effect from being re* 



p 2 



