velty is something analogous to that which we derive from wit, and the more unexpected the greater our pleasure. It was characteristic of the eloquence of Mr. Burke, that the novelty of his thoughts and allusions always struck an engaged his hearers. I have seen, in the midst of a grave debate, the whole house agitated as by a shock of electricity, by some new and unexpected sally. These were sometimes of a witty, and sometimes of a serious description. But in either way, I believe there never was an orator of whom novelty and originality of thought was so unequivocally the attribute If however novelty is so powerful an instrument in the hands of genius, there is nothing in which young and incompetent writers will so much expose themselves as in attempting it. Yet some authors of very secondary talents have acquired much temporary and transient fame, by an air of novelty. Among these, I cannot but rank the author of Tristram Shandy, the Sentimental Journey, &c. In these most unclassical productions, we see all regard to connexion and arrangement thrown aside; the reader is frequently left to help himself to a meaning, or, if there is one, it is such as no two men understand alike; sentiment is strangely mingled with attempts at wit, and both introduced with little apparent design. I was proceeding to treat, in the third place, of the sublime, but I perceive that if I introduced it here I should greatly exceed my limits. LETTER IV. III. The Sublime. MY DEAR JOHN, WHEN you recollect that an author, who deservedly occupies the first place among critics, has written a whole treatise on the sublime, you will probably wonder at my boldness, when I presume to confine so important a subject within the short limits of a letter. But you will remember that these letters are intended only as an introduction to the more voluminous writers on criticism. Longinus too extends his notion of the sublime much further than I do, indeed almost to all that is excellent in serious composition. Perhaps etymology is in general a better guide to truth than definition. The title which the invaluable treatise of Longinus bears is w Te ves "of the lofty or high." To this you know the Latin word sublimitas perfectly corresponds, and our word sublime: though I think the grand would express it better in our language. Perhaps Horace has nearly defined it, in describing the character of a real poet "" Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior, atque os "Magna soniturum, des nominis hujus honorem." HOR. lib. i. sat. 4. "Is there a man whom real genius fires, FRANCIS. The sensation of the sublime is experienced when we survey a very large and lofty mountain, a vast extensive plain, a very wide and rapid river; and I believe it is felt by every person when he first contemplates the expanded ocean. The works of art can sometimes give us the sensation. I never find myself within the long and lofty aisle of a fine Gothic cathedral, without experiencing it; and I conceive it would be impossible to survey even one of the great pyramids of Egypt, without a similar feeling. The convulsions of nature inspire ideas of the sublime. On feeling an earthquake, or survey ing the eruption of a volcano, the sensation must be the sublime, with a mixture of terror. On viewing a thunder-storm at a distance, something of the same kind is experienced. "Who but rather turns "To heaven's broad fire his unconstrained view, "The Nile or Ganges roll his wasteful tide, "Thro' mountains, plains, thro' empires black with. shade,. "And continents of sand, will turn his gaze "To mark the windings of a scanty rill "That murmurs at his feet?" AKENSIDE. Even ideal contemplations will sometimes affect us in a similar manner. Such are the ideas of infinite space and eternity. "In vain do we pursue that phantom time, too small, and yet too mighty for our grasp; when shrinking to a narrow point it 'scapes our hold, or mocks our scanty thought by swelling out to all eternity: an object unproportioned to our capacity, as is thy being, O thou antient cause! Older than time, yet young with fresh eternity! |