painting, or statues, contribute but little to the fublime. This rule need not be put in practice, except where an uniform degree of the most striking fublimity is to be produced, and that in every particular; for it ought to be observed, that this melancholy kind of greatness, though it be certainly the highest, ought not to be studied in all forts of edifices, where yet grandeur must be studied: in fuch cafes the fublimity must be drawn from the other fources; with a strict caution however against any thing light and riant; as nothing so 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 passion may be produced. Sounds have a great power in these as in most other paffions. I do not mean words, because words do not affect fimply by their founds, but by means altogether different. Excessive loudness alone is fufficient to overpower the foul, to suspend its action, and to fill it with terrour. The noise of vast cataracts, raging storms, thunder, or artillery, awakes a great and awful sensation in the mind, though we can observe no nicety or artifice in those forts of musick. The shouting of multitudes

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has a similar effect; and, by the fole strength of the found, so amazes and confounds the imagination, that, in this staggering, and hurry of the mind, the best established tempers can scarcely forbear being borne down, and joining in the common cry, and common resolution of the crowd.

SECT. XVIII.

SUDDENNESS.

A Sudden beginning, or fudden cessation of found of any confiderable force, has the fame power. The attention is roused by this; and the faculties driven forward, as it were, on their guard. Whatever either in sights or founds makes the tranfition from one extreme to the other eafy, causes no terrour, and confequently can be no caufe of greatness. In every thing sudden 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 observed that a single found of fome ftrength, though but of short duration, if repeated after intervals, has a grand ef. fect. Few things are more awful than the striking 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 pauses; and of the fucceffive

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:

Ive firing of cannon at a distance. All the effects mentioned in this section have causes very nearly

alike.

SECT. ΧΙΧ.

INTERMITTING.

A Low, tremulous, intermitting sound, though it seems in some respects opposite to that just men tioned, 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 experience 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 worst that can happen; and hence it is, that uncertainty is so terrible, that we often feek to be rid of it, at the hazard of a certain mischief. Now, fome low, confused, uncertain sounds 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.

-A faint shadow of uncertain light,
Like as a lamp, whose life doth fade away;
Or as the moon clothed with cloudy night
Doth shew 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 sounds are, when the necessary dispositions 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 beasts are equally capable of caufing a great and awful sensation.

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Hinc exaudiri gemitus, iræque leonum
Vincla recufantum, et fera fub nocte rudentum;
Setigerique fues, atque in præfepibus urfi
Savire; et formæ magnorum ululare luporum.

It might seem that these modulations of found carry some connection with the nature of the things they represent, 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 said of language. The modifications of found, which may be productive of the fublime, are almost infinite. Those I have mentioned, are only a few instances to shew, on what principles they are all built.

SECT. ΧΧΙ.

SMELL AND TASTE. BITTERS AND STENCHES.

SMELLS and Tastes, have some share too in ideas of greatness; but it is a small one, weak in its nature, and confined in its operations. I shall only observe, that no fmells or tastes can produce a grand sensation, except excessive bitters, and intolerable stenches. It is true, that these affections of the smell and taste, when they are in their full force, and lean directly upon the sensory, are simply painful, and accompanied with no fort of delight; but when they are moderated, as in a description or narrative, 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" ness;" " to drain the bitter cup of fortune;" " the