PART I. OF TASTE. 3? 



Sublimity. — In visible objects, this emotion* is produced 

 by immensity ; as the ocean. By great dimensions and deter- 

 minate variations of outline; as in mountains, and the sky 

 outlines of buildings. By considerable dimensions and inde- 

 terminate variations of outline ; as in objects placed more or 

 less in obscurity, as large ships, towers, or castles appearing 

 through dark fogs ; or mountains with their tops hid in the 

 clouds. It may be produced by magnitude, succession, and uni- 

 formity; as in ample colonades ; or by great height or depth; 

 as in spires, precipices, 8cc. &c. Whatever gives the idea of 

 immense power, either exerted, or capable of being brought 

 into action, seems to convey this emotion of sublimity. But, 

 after all that has been written upon the subject, it is difficult 

 to offer any thing conclusive as to the final cause of this emo- 

 tion. Certain it is, that love and ambition are the most power- 

 ful passions in the human mind. Power is the object of ambi- 

 tion as beauty is the cause of love. When power is exerting 

 for, or apparently for our destruction, it causes terror, or the 

 loss of reason, as in a violent storm at sea, an engagement, or 

 on a death-bed. When it has been exerted in time past, or is 

 exerting, but in a way which does not endanger our lives,' as 

 in buildings, viewing the calm ocean, &c. it often, if not al- 

 ways, raises the true sublime. 



* For the difference between emotion and sensation, see Allison on Taste. 



