image. For the fame reason Jupiter is represented, as fhaking his locks, before he gives the nod; "Shakes "his ambrofial curls, and gives the nod;" which is trifling and infignificant; whereas in the original the shaking of his hair is the confequence of his nod, and makes a happy picturefque circumftance in the defcription.

The boldness, freedom, and variety of our blank verse are infinitely more propitious than rhyme, to all kinds of fublime poetry. The fullest proof of this is afforded by Milton; an author, whofe genius led him peculiarly to the fublime. The first and fecond books of Paradife Loft are continued examples of it. Take, for instance, the following noted defcription of Satan, after his fall, appearing at the head of his infernal hofts:

-He, above the reft,

In fhape and gefture proudly eminent,
Stood, like a tower; his form had not yet loft
All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Lefs than archangel ruin'd, and the excess
Of glory obfcur'd: As when the fun, new rifen,
Looks through the horizontal misty air,
Shorn of his beams; or, from behind the moon,

In dim eclipfe, difaftrous twilight sheds

On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd so, yet shone
Above them all th' archangel.

Here various fources of the fublime are joined together the principal object fuperlatively great; a high, fuperiour nature, fallen indeed, but raising itself against distress; the grandeur of the principal object heightened by connecting it with fo noble an idea, as

that of the fun fuffering an eclipfe; this picturej. fhaded with all those images of change and trouble, of darknefs and terror; which coincide fo exquifitely with the fublime emotion; and the whole expreffed in a style and verfification eafy, natural, and fimple,. but magnificent.

Befide fimplicity and conciseness, strength is effentially necessary to fublime writing. Strength of defcrip.on proceeds in a great measure from concifeness but it implies fomething more, namely, a judicious. choice of circumftances in the defcription; fuch as will exhibit the object in its full and most striking point of view. For every object has feveral faces, by which it may be prefented to us, according to the circumftances with which we furround it; and it will appear fuperlatively fublime, or not, in pro portion as thefe circumftances are happily chofen, and of a fublime kind. In this, the great art of the writer confists; and indeed the principal difficulty of fublime description. If the defcription be too general, and divested of circumstances; the object is fhewn in a faint light, and makes a feeble impreffion, or no impreffion, on the reader. At the time, if At the time, if any trivial or improper circumstances be mingled, the whole is degraded.

The nature of that emotion, which is aimed at by: fublime description, admits no mediocrity, and cannot fubfift in a middle state; but muft either highly tranfport us; or, if unsuccessful in the execution, leave us. sxceedingly difgufted. We attempt to rife with the writer; the imagination is awakened, and put upon the stretch; but it ought to be fupported; and, if in he midit of its effort it be deferted unexpectedly, it

falls with a painful fhock. When Milton in his battle of the angels defcribes them, as tearing up mountains, and throwing them at one another; there are in his defcription, as Mr. Addifon has remarked, no circumstances, but what are truly fublime :

From their foundations loos'ning to and fro,
They pluck'd the feated hills with all their load,
Rocks, waters, woods; and by the fhaggy tops
Uplifting, bore them in their hands.-

This idea of the giants throwing the mountains, which is in itself so grand, Claudian renders burlesque and ridiculous by the fingle circumftance of one of his giants with the mountain Ida upon his fhoulders, and a river; which flowed from the mountain, running down the giant's back, as he held it up in that posture. Virgil in his description of mount Etna, is guilty of a flight inaccuracy of this kind. After feveral magnificent images, the poet concludes with perfonifying the mountain under this figure,,

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«Eructans vifcera cum gemitu"

belching up its bowels with a groan ;" which, by making the mountain resemble a fick or drunken perfon, degrades the majesty of the description. The debafing effect of this idea will appear in a ftronger light, from obferving what figure it makes in a poem of Sir Richard Blackmore; who, through an extravagant perverfity of tafte, felected it for the principal circumftance in his defcription; and thereby, as Dr. Arburthnot humorously obferves, reprefented the mountain as in a fit of the cholick.

Ætna and all the burning mountains find
Their kindled ftores with inbred ftorms of wind
Blown up to rage, and roaring out complain,
As torn with inward gripes and torturing pain ;.
Labouring, they caft their dreadful vomit round,
And with their melted bowels fpread the ground,

Such inftances flow how much the fublime de pends upon a proper felection of circumstances; and with how great care every circumstance must be avoided, which, by approaching in the smallest degree to. the mean, or even to the gay or trifling, changes the tone of the emotion.

What is commonly called the fublime style, is for the most part a very bad one, and has no relation. whatever to the true Sublime. Writers are apt to imagine that fplendid words, accumulated epithets, and a certain fwelling kind of expreffion, by rifing above: what is customary or vulgar, conftitute the fublime;. yet nothing is in reality more falfe. In genuine inftances of fublime writing nothing of this kind appears.. "God faid, let there be light;. and there was light.' This is ftriking and fublime; but put it into what is. commonly called the fublime ftyle: "The Sovereign. "Arbiter of nature, by the potent energy of a fingle. "word, commanded the light to exift" and, as Boileau, juftly obferved, the ftyle is indeed raifed, but the: thought is degraded. In general it may be observed, that the fublime lies in the thought, not in the ex-. pression; and, when the thought is really noble, it. will generally clothe itself in a native majesty of language.

The faults, oppofite to the Sublime, are principally: two, the Frigid and the Bombaft. The Frigid confists

in degrading an object or sentiment, which is fublimein itself, by a mean conception of it; or by a weak, low, or puerile defcription of it. This betrays entire abfence, or at least extreme poverty, of genius. The Bombaft lies in forcing a common or trivial object out of its rank, and in labouring to raife it into the sub-lime; or in attempting to exalt a fublime object be. yond all natural bounds..

BEAUTY AND OTHER PLEASURES OF TASTE.

BEAUTY next to Sublimity affords the higheft pleafure to the imagination. The emotion, which it. raifes, is easily distinguished from that of fublimity. It is of a calmer kind; more gentle and foothing ;, does not elevate the mind fo much, but produces a pleafing ferenity. Sublimity excites a feeling, too violent to be lafting; the pleasure proceeding from: Beauty admits longer duration. It extends alfo to a much greater variety of objects than fublimity; to a variety indeed fo great, that the fenfations which. beautiful objects excite; differ exceedingly, not in degree only, but also in kind, from each other. Hence no word is used in a more undetermined fignification than Beauty. It is applied to almost every external object, which pleases the eye or the ear; to many of the graces of writing; to feveral difpofitions of the mind; nay, to fome objects of abstract fcience. We peak frequently of a beautiful tree or flower a.