much closer attention than we dare claim from our manner of treating it. If it should not appear on the face of the work, I must caution the reader against imagining that I intended a full dissertation on the Sublime and Beautiful. My inquiry went no farther than to the origin of these ideas. If the qualities which I have ranged under the head of the Sublime be all found consistent with each other, and all different from those which I place under the head of Beauty; and if those which compose the class of the Beautiful have the same consistency with themselves, and the same opposition to those which are classed under the denomination of Sublime, I am in little pain whether anybody chooses to follow the name I give them or not, provided he allows that what I dispose under different heads are in reality different things in nature. The use I make of the words may be blamed, as too confined or too extended; my meaning cannot well be misunderstood. To conclude: whatever progress may be made towards the discovery of truth in this matter, I do not repent the pains I have taken in it. The use of such inquiries may be very considerable. Whatever turns the soul inward on itself, tends to concentre its forces, and to fit it for greater and stronger flights of science. By looking into physical causes our minds are opened and enlarged ; and in this pursuit, whether we take or whether we lose our game, the chase is certainly of service. Cicero, true as he was to the academic philosophy, and consequently led to reject the certainty of physical, as of every other kind of knowledge, yet freely confesses its great importance to the human understanding : “Est animorum ingeniorumque nostrorum naturale quoddam quasi pabulum consideratio contemplatioque naturæ.” If we can di rect the lights we derive from such exalted speculations upon the humbler field of the imagination, whilst we investigate the springs, and trace the courses of our passions, we may not only communicate to the taste a sort of philosophical solidity, but we may reflect back on the severer sciences some of the graces and elegances of taste, without which the greatest proficiency in those sciences will always have the appearance of something illiberal. . 101 104 . . . 106 . . 110 III. The Difference between the Removal of Pain and Pos- IV. Of Delight and Pleasure, as opposed to each other VI. Of the Passions which belong to Self-Preservation VIII. Of the Passions which belong to Society IX. The Final Cause of the Difference between the Passions belonging to Self-Preservation, and those which re- XII. Sympathy, Imitation, and Ambition 132 133 134 138 146 147 148 49 152 153 . III. Obscurity with regard to the Passions . (IV.) The Same Subject continued V. Power X. Magnitude in Building XV. Light in Building XX. The Cries of Animals . 153 154 156 157 . . 158 159 160 160 161 162 164 . PART III. . . . 1. Of Beauty 165 II. Proportion not the Cause of Beauty in Vegetables 166 III. Proportion not the Cause of Beauty in Animals . 170 IV. Proportion not the Cause of Beauty in the Human Species 172 V. Proportion further considered 178 VI. Fitness not the Cause of Beauty 181 VII. The Real Effects of Fitness 184 VIII. The Recapitulation 187 IX. Perfection not the Cause of Beauty 187 X. How far the Idea of Beauty may be applied to the Qualities of the Mind . 188 XI. How far the Idea of Beauty may be applied to Virtue 190 XII. The Real Cause of Beauty . 191 . |
Get this book in print
0 Reviews Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified Write review |