2

He therefore, who has a competent Share of natural and acquired Taste, may easily discover the Value of any Performance from a bare Recital of it. If he finds, that it tranfports not his Soul, nor exalts his Thoughts; that it calls not up into his Mind Ideas more enlarged than what the mere Sounds of the Words convey, but on attentive examination its Dignity leffens and declines; he may conclude, that whatever pierces no deeper than the Ears, can never be the true Sublime. That on the contrary is grand and lofty, which the more we confider, the greater Ideas we conceive of it; whofe Force we cannot poffibly withstand; which immediately finks deep, and makes fuch Impreffions on the Mind, as cannot be eafily worn out or effaced. In a Word, you may pronounce that Sublime beautiful and genuine, which always pleases, and takes equally with all forts of Men. For when Perfons of different Humours, Ages, Profeffions, and Inclinations, agree in the fame joint Approbation of any Performance, then this Union of Affent, this Combination of so many different Judgments, ftamps an high and indifputable Value on that Performance, which meets with such general Applaufe.

SEC

THERE are, if I may fo express it, five very copious Sources of the Sublime, if we prefuppofe an Ability of Speaking well, as a common Foundation for these five Sorts, and indeed without it, any thing befides will avail but little.

I. The First and most excellent of these is a Boldness and Grandeur in the Thoughts, as I have fhewn in my Effay on Xenophon.

II. The Second is call'd the Pathetic, or the Power of raifing the Paffions to a violent and even enthusiastic degree; and these two being genuine Conftituents of the Sublime, are the Gifts of Nature, whereas the other forts depend in fome measure upon Art.

III. The Third confifts in a skilful Application of Figures, which are two-fold, of Sentiment and Language.

IV. The Fourth is a noble and graceful manner of Expreffion, which is not only to chuse out fignificant and elegant Words, but also to adorn and embellish the Stile, by the Affiftance of Tropes.

V. The Fifth Source of the Sublime, which compleats all the preceding, is the Structure or Compofition of all the Periods, in all poffible Dignity and Grandeur. I proceed

I proceed next to confider each of these Sources apart, but must first observe, that, of the Five, Cecilius has wholly omitted the Pathetic. Now, if he look'd upon the Grand and Pathetic as including one another, and in effect the fame, he was under a Miftake. For fome Paffions are vaftly diftant from Grandeur, and are in themselves of a low degree; as Lamentation, Sorrow, Fear; and on the contrary, there are many things grand and lofty without any Paffion; as, among a thousand Inftances, we may fee, from what 3 the Poet has faid, with fo much Boldness, of the Aloides*.

* to raise

Huge Offa on Olympus Top they ftrove,
And place on Offa Pelion with its Grove;
That Heaven itself thus climb'd, might be affail'd.

But the Boldness of what he afterwards adds, is yet greater,

Nor would Succefs their bold Attempts have fail'd, &c.

Among the Orators, all Panegyrics, and Orations composed for Pomp and Show, may be grand throughout, but yet are for the moft part void of Paffion. So that thofe Orators, who excel in the Pathetic, fcarcely ever fucceed

C

Odyff. A. v. 314.

"

feldom

But on the other

ceed as Panegyrifts; and those, whofe Ta lents lie chiefly at Panegyric, are very able to affect the Paffions. hand, if Cecilius was of opinion, that the Pathetic did not contribute to the Sublime, and on that account judg'd it not worth his mention, he is guilty of an unpardonable Error. For I confidently aver, that nothing so much raises Discourse, as a fine Pathos feasonably. applied. It animates a whole Performance with uncommon Life and Spirit, and gives meer Words the Force (as it were) of Infpiration.

BUT tho' the first and most important of these Divisions, I mean, Elevation of Thought, be rather a natural than an acquired Qualification, yet we ought to fpare no Pains to educate our Souls to Grandeur, and impregnate them with generous and enlarged Ideas.

"But how, it will be "done?" Why, I have

ask'd, can this be

hinted in another

Place, that the Sublime is an Image reflected from the inward Greatnefs of the Soul. Hence it comes to pass, that a naked Thought without Words challenges Admiration, and strikes by its Grandeur. Such is the Silence of Ajax

I

In the Odyffey, which is undoubtedly noble, and far above Expreffion!

To arrive at Excellence like this, we muft needs fuppofe that, which is the Cause of it, I mean, that an Orator of the true Genius must have no mean and ungenerous way of thinking. For it is impoffible for those, who have grov'ling and fervile Ideas, or are engaged in the fordid Purfuits of Life, to produce any thing worthy of Admiration, and the Perufal of all Pofterity. Grand and sublime Expreffions muft flow from them, and them alone, whofe Conceptions are ftored and big with Greatnefs. And hence it is, that the greatest Thoughts are always uttered by the greatest Souls. When Parmenio cried, "would accept these Proposals, if I was Ale"xander;" Alexander made this noble Reply, "And fo would I, if I was Parmenio." His Anfwer fhew'd the Greatness of his Mind.

2

So 3 the Space between Heaven and Earth marks out the vaft Reach and Capacity of Homer's Ideas, when he says, *

* While Scarce the Skies her horrid Head can bound,
She talks on Earth:

Ĉ 2

Iliad. 443

Mr. Pope.

This