784 
GRANDEUR 
by its fize, its height, its awful folemnity, its ftrength, 
its antiquity, and its durability. bJo perfon can enter 
the cathedrals of York, of Durham, or Winchefler, 
witliout being forcibly llruck with thefe I'enfations. 
There Hill reniains to be mentioned one clafs of grand 
or fublime objects, which may be called the moral or 
tentimeiita! lublime; arillng from certain exertions ot 
the human mind ; from certain affections, and aftions,- 
ot our tellovv-crcatures. Thefe will be found to be all, 
or chiefly, ot that clafs, which comes under the name 
ot magnanimity or luroifmt, and they produce an effect ex¬ 
tremely (imilar to what is produced by the view of grand 
objetits in nature; filling the mind with admiration, and 
elevating it above itfelf. A noted initance of this, 
quoted by all the French critics, is the celebrated Ojiil 
mourui of Corneille, in the tragedy of Horace. In the 
famous combat betwixt tlie Horatii and Curiatii, the 
old Floratius, being informed that two of his fons are 
llain, and that the third had betaken himfelf to flight, 
at firft will notTelieve the report; but being thoroughly 
affured of the ta6f, is fired with all the fentiments of 
liigh Iionour and indignation at this fuppoled unworthy 
behaviour of his lurviving fon. Me is reminded, that 
his fon Hood alone agaiivH three, and alked what he 
wiflied him to have done ?—“ To liave died,”—he an- 
fwers. In the lame manner Porus, taken prifoner by 
Alexander, after a gallant defence, and afked iiow he 
wilhed to be treate*! ? anfwering, “Like a king;” and 
Ca;lar chiding tlie pilot who was afraid to fet out with 
him in a Horm, “Quid times? Catfarem vehis;” are 
extraordinary inftances of this 'fentimental fublime. 
Vv'^heievcr, in fome perilous and liigh lituation, we be¬ 
hold a man uncommonly intrepid, and reHing upon him- 
lelt; fuperior to paflioa :ind to fear; animated by Ibme 
great principle to tlie contempt of popular opinion, of 
lelfilh intereH, of dangers, or of death ; there we are 
Hruck w ith the fenfe of the grand and fublime. 
High virtue is above all others the moH natural and 
fertile lource of moral lublimity. liowevcr, on fome 
accalions, where virtue either has no place, or is but 
impertecfly dilplayed, yet if extraordinary vigour and 
force of mind be difcovcred, we are not infenfible to 
a de gree of grandeur in the charafter; and from the 
fplendid conqueror, or the daring c^nfpirator, whom 
we are tar from approving, we cannot withhold our ad¬ 
miration. The fublime, in natural and in moral objects, 
IS brought before us in one view, and compared toge¬ 
ther, in the following beautiful palfage of Akenfide’s 
Plealures of the Imagination: 
Look then abroad through nature ; to the range 
Of planets, funs, and adamantine fpheres. 
Wheeling, unlliaken, through the void immenfej 
And fpeak, O man ! does this capacious fccne, 
Vv'^ith half that kindling inajeHy, dilate 
Tliy Hrong conception, as when Bruttis rofe 
Refulgent, from the Hroke of Ctefai’s fate. 
Amid Hie crowd of patriots; and his arm 
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove, 
When guilt brings down the thunder, call’d aloud 
On Tully’s name, and Hiook his crimfon Heel, 
And bade the father of his country hail! 
For lo! the tyrant pioHrate on the duH; 
And Rome again is free.— Book I. 
Silius Italicus has endeavoured to give an auguH idea 
«f Hannibal, by reprefenting him as furrounded with 
all his victories, in the place of guards. One who had 
formed a defign of affallinating him in the midlt of a 
feali, is thus addrelfed ; 
Fallit te, menfas inter quod credis inermem; 
Tot bellis quielita viro, tot ctedibus, armat 
hlajellas reterna ducem. Si admoveris ora 
(tannas, & Trebium ante oculos, Trafymenaque buHa 
Jit Pauli Hare ingentem miraberis umbram. 
A thouglit fomcwhat of tlie fame Bature occurs in a 
French author: *'■ ll fe caches mais fa reputation le 
decouvre. II marche fans fuite & fans equipage; mais 
chacun, dans fon efprit, le met fur un char de triomphe. 
On compte, en le voiant, les ennemis qai’il a vaincus, 
non pas les ferviteurs qui le fuivent. Tout feul qu’il 
eH, on fe figure, autour de lui, fes vertus Sc fes vidtoires 
qui I’accompagnent. • Moins il cH fuperbe, plus il dc- 
vient venerable.” Oraifcn funtbre de M. de Turenne, 
par M. Flechier .—Both thefe paffages are fplendid, ra¬ 
ther than fublime. In the firH, there is a want of^uH- 
nefs in the thought; in the fecond, of fimplicity in 
the expreffion, 
A queHion Iras arifen, whether we are able to difco- 
ver fome one fundamental quality in w'hich all thefe 
different objects agree, and which is the caufe of their 
producing an emotion of the fame nature in our minds ? 
Various hypothefes have been formed concerning this ; 
but, hitherto, unfatisfadfory. Some have imagined that 
amplitude, or great extent, joined with fimplicity, is 
cither immediately, or remotely, the fundamental qua¬ 
lity of whatever is fublime ; but we have feen that am¬ 
plitude is confined to one Ipecies of fublime objedfs; 
and cannot, without violent Hraining, be applied to 
them all. The admired author of “ A Philofophical 
Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and 
Beautiful,” propofes a formal theory upon this founda¬ 
tion, That terror is the fource of the fublime, and that 
no objedfs have this charadter, but fuel) as produce 
imprellions of pain and danger. It is indeed true, that 
many terrible objedfs are highly fublime; and that 
grandeur does not refufe an alliance with the idea of 
danger. But though this is very properly illuHrated by 
the author, yet lie feems to Hretch his theory too far, 
when he reprefents the fublime as confiding wholly in 
modes of danger or of pain. For the proper fenlatioii 
ot fublimity appears to be very diHinguilhable from the 
fenfation of either of thefe; and, on feveral occafions, 
to be entirely feparated from them. In many grand ob- 
jedts, there is no coincidence with terror at all ; as in 
the magnificent profpedt of wide-extended plains, and 
of the Harry firmament; or in the moral difpofitions and 
fentiments, which we view with high admiration; and 
in many painful and terrible objects alfo, it is clear, 
there is no fort of grandeur. The amputation ofa limb, 
_or the bite of a viper, are exceedingly terrible; but are. 
deHitute of all claim whatever to fublimity. We are 
inclined to think, that mighty force or power, wTether 
accompanied with terror or not, whether employed in 
protedting or in alarming us, has a better title, than any 
thing that has yet been mentioned, to be the fundamental 
quality of the grand and fublime; as, after the review 
which we have taken, there feems not to occur any 
fublime objedf, into the idea of which, power, flrength, 
and force, either enter not diredfly, or are not, at JeaH, 
intimately affoeiated with the idea, by leading our 
thoughts to fome aHonifliing or uncontroulable poweiy 
as concerned in the production of the objedt. 
That W'hich is termed gi'and or fublime in writing or 
compofition, is fuch a delcription of objedfs, or exhi¬ 
bition of fentiments, that are in thenifelves of fucli a 
grand or fublime nature, as lhall fill the mind with 
Hrong imprellions of them. But there is another very 
indefinite, and therefore very improper, fenfe, which 
has been often put upon it; as when it is applied to fig- 
nify ajiy remarkable excellency of compofition; whether 
it raife in us the ideas of grandeur, or thofe of gentlc- 
uefs, elegance, or any other lort of beauty. In this 
fenle we Ihould agree with Bergerus, that Ctefar’s Com¬ 
mentaries may be termed fublime; and fo may many 
fonnets, paHorals, and love elegies, as well as Homer’s 
Iliad. But this evidently confounds the life of words; 
and marks no one elfential Ipecies, or charadter, of com¬ 
pofition whatever. 
It may be obferved, that the fublime is too often ufed 
in this iall lenle, even by the celebrated Longinus, in 
his 
