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painting, or ftatues, contribute but little to the fublime. This rule need not be put in practice, except where an uniform degree of the moft ftriking fublimity is to be produced, and that in every particular; for it ought to be obferved, that this melancholy kind of greatnefs, though it be certainly the higheft, ought not to be ftudied in all forts of edifices, where yet grandeur must be ftudied in fuch cafes the fublimity must be drawn from the other fources; with a ftrict caution however against any thing light and riant; as nothing fo effectually deadens the whole tafte of the fublime.

SECT. XVII.

SOUND AND LOUDNESS.

THE eye is not the only organ of fenfation, by which a fublime paffion may be produced. Sounds have a great power in these as in moft other paffions. I do not mean words, because words do not affect fimply by their founds, but by means altogether different. Exceffive loudness alone is fufficient to overpower the foul, to fufpend its action, and to fill it with terrour. The noise of vast cataracts, raging ftorms, thunder, or` artillery, awakes a great and awful fenfation in the mind, though we can obferve no nicety or artifice in thofe forts of mufick. The fhouting of multitudes

has

has a fimilar effect; and, by the fole ftrength of the found, fo amazes and confounds the imagination, that, in this ftaggering, and hurry of the mind, the best established tempers can scarcely forbear being borne down, and joining in the common cry, and common refolution of the crowd.

SECT. XVIII.

SUDDENNESS.

A Sudden beginning, or fudden ceffation of found of any confiderable force, has the same power. The attention is roused by this; and the faculties driven forward, as it were, on their guard. Whatever either in fights or founds makes the transition from one extreme to the other easy, causes no terrour, and confequently can be no caufe of greatness. In every thing fudden and unexpected, we are apt to start; that is, we have a perception of danger, and our nature rouses us to guard against it. It may be obferved that a single found of fome strength, though but of short duration, if repeated after intervals, has a grand ef. fect. Few things are more awful than the ftriking of a great clock, when the filence of the night prevents the attention from being too much diffipated. The fame may be said of a single stroke on a drum, repeated with paufes; and of the fuccef

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five firing of cannón at a distance. All the effects. mentioned in this fection have caufes very nearly

alike.

SE C T. XIX.

INTERMITTING.

A Low, tremulous, intermitting found, though it seems in fome refpects oppofite to that just mentioned, is productive of the fublime. It is worth while to examine this a little. The fact itself must be determined by every man's own expe rience and reflection. I have already obferved, that night increases our terrour, more perhaps than any thing else; it is our nature, when we do not know what may happen to us, to fear the worft that can happen; and hence it is, that uncertainty is fo terrible, that we often feek to be rid of it, at the hazard of a certain mischief. Now, fome low, confufed, uncertain founds leave us in the fame fearful anxiety concerning their causes, that no light, or an uncertain light, does concerning the objects that furround us.

Quale per incertam lunam fub luce maligna
Eft iter in fylvis.

Sect. 3.

A faint fhadow of uncertain light,
Like as a lamp, whofe life doth fade away;
Or as the moon clothed with cloudy night

Doth fhew to him who walks in fear and great affright.

SPENSER.

But light now appearing, and now leaving us, and fo off and on, is even more terrible than total darkness: and a fort of uncertain founds are, when the neceffary difpofitions concur, more alarming than a total filence.

SECT. XX.

THE CRIES OF ANIMALS.

SUCH founds as imitate the natural inarticulate voices of men, or any animals in pain or danger, are capable of conveying great ideas; unless it be the well-known voice of fome creature, on which we are used to look with contempt. The angry tones of wild beafts are equally capable of caufing a great and awful fenfation.

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Hinc exaudiri gemitus, iraque leonum

Vincla recufantum, et fera fub nocte rudentum.
Setigerique fues, atque in præfepibus urfi
Sævire; et formæ magnorum ululare luporum.

It might seem that these modulations of found carry fome connection with the nature of the things they reprefent, and are not merely arbitrary; because the natural cries of all animals, even of those animals with whom we have not been acquainted, never fail to make themselves fufficiently understood; this cannot be faid of language. The modifications of found, which may be productive of the fublime, are almost infinite. Thofe I have mentioned, are only a few inftances to fhew, on what principles they are all built.

SECT. XXI.

SMELL AND TASTE. BITTERS AND STENCHES

SMELLS and Taftes, have fome share too in ideas of greatness; but it is a small one, weak in its nature, and confined in its operations. I fhall only obferve, that no fmells or taftes can produce a grand fenfation, except exceffive bitters, and intolerable ftenches. It is true, that these affections of the smell and tafte, when they are in their full force, and lean directly upon the fenfory, are fimply painful, and accompanied with no fort of delight; but when they are moderated, as in a defcription" or parrative, they become fources of the fublime, as genuine as any other, and upon the very fame principle of a moderated pain. "A cup of bitter"nefs;" "to drain the bitter cup of fortune;"

"the

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