78G 
GRANDEUR. 
But wlien tbc powers defeending fvvell’d tlie fight, 
Tl'.en tumult rofe, fierce rage, and pale affright; 
Now through the trembling fhcres Minerva calls, 
And now Ihe thunders from the Grecian w;ills. 
Mars hov’ring o’er his Troy, his terror flirouds 
Jn gloomy tempefts, and a night of clouds; 
Now through each Trojan heart he fury pours, 
Vdith voice divine, from Ilion’s topmoft towers.- 
Above, the Sire of Gods his thunder rolls. 
And peals on peals redoubled rend the poles; 
Beneath, (tern Neptune ffiakes the folid ground. 
The foreffs wave, the mountains nod around ; 
Through all her (ummits tremble Ida’s woods. 
And from their fources boil her hundred floods: 
Troy’s turrets totter on the rocking plain. 
And the tofs’d navies beat the heaving main : 
Deep in the difmal region of the dead, 
Th’ infernal monarch rear’d his horrid head. 
Leapt from his throne, led Neptune’s arm (hould lay 
Nls dark dominions open to the day ; 
And pour in light on Pluto’s drear abodes, 
Abhorr’d by men, and dreadful ev’n to gods. 
Such wars th’ immortals wage; fuch horrors rend 
The world’s valt concave, when the gods contend. Pope. 
Tile works of OlTian alfo abound with examples of 
the grand and fublime. The lubjefts of w'hicJi tiiat 
author treats, and the manner in which he writes, are 
particularly favourable to it. He deals in no fuperfluous 
or gaudy ornaments ; but throvvs forth his images with 
a rapid concifenefs, which enables them to ftrike the 
mind with the greateft force. Among poets of more 
polifhed times, we are to look for the graces of correct 
writing, for juff propoi tion of parts, and flcilfully-con- 
diuSfecl narration. In the midft of fmiling feenery and 
pleafurable themes, the gay and the beautiful will un¬ 
doubtedly appear to more advantage. But amidft the 
rude feenes of nature and of fociety, fuch as Ollian de- 
feribes ; amidft rocks, and torrents, and whirlwinds, 
and battles, dwells tlie fublime ; and naturally allbciates 
itfelf with tiiat grave and folemn fpirit which diftin- 
guifties tile author of Pingal. “ As autumn’s dark 
ftorms-pour from two eciioing liills, fo toward eacii 
other approaciied tiie lieroes. As two dark ftreams 
from high rocks meet and mix, and roar on the plain ; 
loud, rougli, and dark, in battle, met Loclilin and Inis- 
fail ; chief mixed liis ftrokes with cliief, and man with 
man. Steel clanging (ounded on fteel. Helmets are cleft 
on liigh ; blood burfts, and fmokes around. As tlie trou¬ 
bled noife of tlie ocean when roll the waves on higli; as 
the laft peal of tlie tluinder of heaven ; fuch is the noile 
of battle. The groan of the people fpread over tlie hills. 
It was like the thunder of night, wlien the cloud burfts 
on Cona, and a tlioufand ghofts liiriek at once on the 
hollow wind.” Never were images of more awful fubli- 
mity employed to heighten the terror of battle. 
In general, Engliffi venle in rhyme appears to be, if 
not inconfiftent with the fublime, at leaft very unfavour¬ 
able to it. 'l ire conftrained elegance of this kind of 
verfe, and the ftudied fmcothnefs of the founds, anfwer- 
ing regularly to each other at the end of the hue, 
though th'ey be quite confiftent with gentle emotions, 
yet weaken tlie natiye grandeur and force of fublimity ; 
befides, that the fuperfiuous words which the poet is 
often obliged to introduce, in order to fill up the rhyme, 
tend farther to enfeeble it. Homer’s delcription of the 
nod of Jupiter, as fliaking the heavens, has been ad¬ 
mired in all ages, as highly grand and i'ublime. Lite¬ 
rally tranflated, it runs thus: “ He (poke, and bending 
his (able brows, gave the awful nod; while he (hook 
tlie celeltial locks of his immortal head, all Olympus 
was lhaken.”—Mr. Pope tranllates it thus : 
He fpoke; and awful bends his fable brows. 
Shakes his ambrolial curls, and gives the nod. 
The (lamp of fate, and lanction of a god. 
High heaven with trembliiig the dread fignal took. 
And all Olympus to its centre (hook 
Here the image is fpread out, and attempted to be 
beautified; but it is, in truth, weakened. The third' 
line—“ The ftamp of fate, and fandtion of a god,” is 
merely expletive ; and introduced for no other reafon 
but to fill up the rhyme; for it interrupts the deferip- 
tion, and clogs the image. For the fame reafon, out of 
mere compliance with the rhyme, Jupiter is reprefented 
as (baking his locks before he gives the nod ;—“ Shakes 
his ambrofial curls, and gives the nad,” wliich is tri¬ 
fling, and without meaning. Whereas, in the original, 
the hair of his head fhaken, is the eftedl of his nod, ancl 
makes a happy pictureique circumftance in the delcrip¬ 
tion., But on the other hand, the boldnefs, freedom, 
and variety, of our blank ver(c, is infinitely more fa¬ 
vourable tlian rhyme, to all kinds of fublime poetry. 
The fulleft proof of this is afforded by Milton ; whofe 
genius led him eminently to tlie grand and fublime. 
The whole firft and fecond books of his Paradife Loft 
are continued inftances of it; one of the moft ftriking of 
wliicli is, the defeription of Satan after liis fall, appear¬ 
ing at the head of the infernal hofts; 
--^He, above the reft. 
In (liape and gefture proudly eminent. 
Stood like a tower : his form had not yet loft 
All her original brightnefs, nor appeared 
Lefs than archangel ruined ; and the excefs 
Of glory obfeured. As when the fun, new rifen. 
Looks thfough the horizontal mifty air. 
Shorn of his beams; OT, from behind, the moon, 
In dim eclipfe, difaftroire twilight (beds 
On halt the' nations, and with fear of change 
Perplexes monarchs-Darken’d fo, yet (hone 
Above tliem all th’ archangel.—- 
Here concur a variety of fources of the grand and 
fublime: the principal objedt eminently great; a liigh 
fuperior nature, fallen indeed, but eredting itfelf againft 
diltrefs; the grandeur of the principal object height¬ 
ened, by alTociatiiig it witli fo noble an idea as that 
of the fun fuff'ering an eclipfe ; this pidture, (liaded 
with all thofe images of change and trouble, of dark- 
nefs and terror, which coincide fo finely with the fii- 
blime emotion; and the whole exprelled in a ftyle 
and verfification, cafy, natural, and (imple, yet very 
magnificent. 
Strength of defeription is in all cafes highly expe¬ 
dient ; and this generally fbllow s from a (imple concife- 
nels; but, it fuppofes alfo fomething more; namely, a 
proper choice of circumftances in the delcription, fo 
as to exhibit thd objedl in its full and moft elevated 
point of view. For every objedt has feveral faces, fo 
to (peak, by which it may be prefented to us, according 
to tile circumftances with which we furround it; and 
it will appear eminently fublime, or not, in proportion 
as all tliele circumftances are happily chofen. Herein 
lies the great art of the writer; and indeed, tlie great 
difficulty of fublime conipoiiiion. If the defeription be 
too general, and divelled of circumftances, the objedt 
appears in a faint light; it makes a feeble impreflion, 
or no inipreffion at all, on the reader. At the fame 
time, if any trivial or improper circumftances are min¬ 
gled, the whole becomes degraded. 
A (torm or tempeft, for iiiltance, is a grand objedt in 
nature. But, to render it fublime in delcription, it is 
not enough, either to give us mere general exprellions 
concerning the violence of the tempeft, or to delcribe 
its common eftedts in overthrowing trees and iioufes. It 
muft be painted with fuch circumltances as fill the mind 
with great and awful ideas. This is moft happily ef- 
fedled by Virgil, in the following paffage: 
Ipfe Pater, media iiimborum in nodle, corufea 
Fuhiiina nioliter dextraj quo maxima motu 
Terro tremit; fugere ferte ; et mortalia corda. 
Per gentes huniilis ftravit pavor. Hie, flagranti 
Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia telo 
Dejicit.-- Georg. I. 
4 The 
