742 POE 
Man is at once a fublime and beautiful object of con¬ 
templation. “ What a piece of work is man !” &c. His 
walk, his looks, his voice, his form, thefe are the molt 
beautiful, or the moft appalling, objects in nature. Hence, 
taken as a whole, every thing that relates to him tends 
to fublimity and beauty. Hence we love to contem¬ 
plate every thing around us as inverted with his thoughts 
and feelings; hence we love to afcribe the actions of 
other beings to his motives. To bid the woods and 
mountains mourn, to make the lily droop, all nature 
groan. The night cannot approach, fave clothed in lurid 
garments; (he has a “ fable vert.” The morning has our 
limbs and our lady’s face. The fun has our pride and 
power. The moon is chafte as the maiden we cherirti. 
The very ether and atmofphere drain each other in a 
nuptial embrace. All nature has in the imagination the 
feelings of man. But the higheft pleafure this faculty 
enjoys is to view him in the colours of perfect -virtue. 
But let it not be faid that we love Jidtion, (as poetry has 
been unjuftly called ;) that we would defcribe ouri'elves 
as we are not. Daily, hereby, are we approaching per- 
feftion, though we may never reach it on earth. But 
(hall we not keep the beacon in view ? may we not look 
at the foul as (virtue aflifting) it will live hereafter ? 
Poetry is the language of the pureft truth, not fi&ion. 
Is there not truth in the thoughts of reafon, and are not 
all the fublimeft flights of the imagination thus founded ? 
Is it not from reafon we learn our immortality, our free¬ 
will ! is it not from this fource we learn the nature of 
God ! Does not reafon lead us to the great truths—that 
we live not for ourfelves, but our kind ; that duty is pa¬ 
ramount to all: that we fhould do good for itfelf, without 
hope of reward for its accomplilhment, without dread 
of punifhment for its negleft ? And is not then reafon 
fublime ? 
We have been obliged to trace thefe principles fepa- 
rately ; but it is to be noted, that they are not uncon¬ 
nected with each other. Indeed the union of beauty and 
fublimity is perpetual. Thefe principles may, by a ftriCt 
analyfis, be refolved into one another; but in their dif¬ 
ferent degrees of preponderance they give rife to the noble, 
the magnificent, the elegant, the majejtic, the grand-, which 
terms, as well as energy, vivacity, &c. fhould be kept in 
ufe, as they form various grades of feeling. It muft be 
noted that, though we may trace all thefe afl'oeiations of 
the beautiful to Come good or moral propenfity, yet that 
it is only on a few occafions, and by a few perfons, that 
it is carried fo far. In moft inftances it is only carried 
to fome fecondary principle of our virtue ; as many per¬ 
fons pleafe on account of their politenefs, though their 
admirers are not confcious of the connexion between this 
and the benevolent. Mere age is fublimity according 
to fome ; others, not altogether fond of the true fublime, 
love myfterious tales. Some fee beauty in wealth ; others 
in antiquities, &c. This introduces an objeClion to our 
theory, which has been put by fome, and which therefore 
fhould be combated. 
A man, taking for example the image of the oak, 
(not long fince adverted to,) may fay “The oak has al¬ 
ways appeared to me a fublime objeCt; but the ideas of 
its fimilitude to freewill, See. I never obferved.” We 
reply, this is true; there are many who are in the fame 
predicament, and even many poets have been fo; but 
it is to be remembered, that there is artificially a fub¬ 
lime and beautiful that we are prone to admire becanfe 
others do fo, till we aftually do admire; and thus, 
through the fource of the oak’s fublimity muft original¬ 
ly have been its likenefs to a faculty of the mind, yet 
the ulual veneration it is held in will fuflicientlyaccount for 
the fenfation in one who never thought of that faculty. 
We have put here an extreme cafe ; but we might have fet¬ 
tled the point much eafler, by the affertion, which is true, 
that the mind is not confcious of the fource of beauty 
without a tedious analyfis, which it naturally avoids. 
The perception of beauty is an inftindi, not an effort of 
T R Y. 
reafon, though it excellently co-operates with that fu-» 
preme faculty. We may obferve in this fomething excel¬ 
lent; for, if every beauty of every objedt were at once 
traced to its fource, viz. the good, there would be no 
variety: whereas, by thus unwittingly creating beauty in 
all the world around us, we form palpable and real 
fources of delight, differing perpetually in number and 
degree; all which by their re-adiion cultivate the moral 
feelings of their original parents. 
We have faid, that the materials of the imagination’s 
pleafure come to us through the five fenfes. But we 
omitted (in common we believe with all other authors) 
another and an extenfive fource; viz. confcioufnefs. 
For, while the fenfes as it were take cognizance of what 
is going on in the world around us, our confcioufnefs 
is taking -cognizance of what is going on within our 
minds : while the former is babbling of green fields and 
purling dreams, viewing the ftarry firmament or the 
fparkling ocean, the latter tells that we love, hate, admire, 
and cherirti ; that we have many good difpofitions, a 
few bad. And this faculty alfo has its pleafures: to eat, 
to drink, to run, to jump, or indeed in any way to exer- 
cife the mufcular fyftem, is agreeable ; and fo on of every 
corporeal action. But, when confcioufnefs takes cogni¬ 
zance of love, joy, &c higher pleafure arifes. Still it is 
confined. How barren and unvaried is the pleafure of 
revenge ! no fooner is it fatisfied, than it is followed by a 
painful remorfe. It is a curious faft, that we rufli into 
the exercife of all emotions with great avidity, even (if 
we did not fear a paradox we might fay) when they are 
difagreeable. What numbers of people flock to an exe¬ 
cution ; yet furely many who fo flock would make fome 
facrifices to fave the life of the viftim. It is not mere 
cruelty that prompts them to this horrid fight. There 
is a dreadful pleafure in feeing the remains of our depart¬ 
ed friends! at leart many people think fo ; and there is 
no reafon for it. There is fome mixture of feelings in 
both thefe cafes ; we are perhaps looking for the beautiful 
or fublime in both cafes. The culprit may difplay con¬ 
tempt of death ; the fight of the corpfe recalls the looks and 
words of our friend, dear reminifcences! Still we cannot 
efcape the convi6Iion that man likes to fee his emotions 
exercifed, and to fuffer them himfelf to fome degree, 
even though painful. It is his natural fyftem of philo- 
fophy ; he ftudies his own pafiions. 
If this be true, we may fay that the delights we derive 
from poetry confift in the contemplation of our own 
emotions. We cannot deny that pictures of rage, jea- 
loufy, See. have generally fomething fublime or beautiful 
in them ; but we cannot refer the pleafures of fcenic 
reprefentation entirely to thefe latter principles; for 
there are many perfons who like to fee a ranting a£tor 
fall into a violent rage, who neverthelefs have no relifli 
for beautiful and noble fentiments, nor for fublime ima¬ 
gery. And thus it is that we find fo many different 
taftes ; for the principles of beauty and fublimity are 
fixed, but no two perfons hold juft the fame opinions of a 
dramatic work. And this is becanfe fome like to con¬ 
template love, others hate; fome enjoy only the manly 
emotions, as friendfhip and patriotifm, See. while common 
people require the (tronger ftimulus of fiercenefs and 
revenge to excite their attention. From confcioufnefs, 
then, we derive dramatic criticifm, or knowledge of cha- 
rafters, perhaps not wholly, but certainly in great part. 
Now, though we endeavour to eftablifh the principle, that 
there is gratification in emotions independent of the 
beautiful or fublime tendency of fuch emotions; yet 
are we forced to admit that both fublimity and beauty 
are to be found in piftures of the pafiions, and that few 
fuch pictures pleafe us unlefs thofe prime qualities are 
fomehow called forth. Still, when we conflder that the 
affociation of the fublime with the external world is much 
more rapid than fuch affociation with our emotions; and 
that, notwithllanding, moft men prefer dramatic to[de- 
feriptive poetry ; we cannot but conclude, that the con- 
7 templation 
