Power, and other Externals; for to a Wife Man Nothing can appear excellent, the Defpifing of which implies a greater Degree of Excellency: Juft fo ought we to confider of whatever seems Lofty k and SUBLIME in Oratory or Poetry, viz. Whether it is really fo, or only appears fo from a noify and turgid Flow of Words; which to despise is much more excellent than to admire. Befides, fays he, Our Mind is naturally excited to the Attention of any thing truly Sublime, and is pleafed as much to hear it, as to have invented it. If therefore at any time you fhould meet with an Expreffion in Appearance Grand and Lofty, which ANNOTATIONS. THE k HE A. B. of fhould tend to move thofe "fecret Springs of Action that Nature has placed in the "Hearts of Men. Would you "then confult your own Mind "to know whether those you 66 66 OBS. X. 66 66 66 §. 82.) that the whole Drift hear be truly Eloquent ? "If they make a lively Impreffion upon you, and gain your Attention and Affent to " what they fay; if they move " and animate your Paffions, "fo as to raise you above your"felf, you may be affured they "are True Orators. But if "instead of affecting you thus, "they only please or divert you, and make you ad"mire the Brightness of their Thoughts, or the Beauty "and Propriety of their Language, you may freely pronounce them to be meer De"claimers. Stevenfon's Cambray's Dial. p. 64. 66 doth doth not immediately affect your Mind, but the more you think of it the meaner it seems; be affured that Sentence belongs not to the Family of the Sublimes, because it pleases no longer than while rehears'd. For that which is truly Sublime irresistibly forces Attention, and when once imprefs'd on the Mind, the more 'tis thought of the more it pleases, and the brighter it fhines. Upon the Whole, call that truly Sublime, which universally pleases all Perfons, in all Places, and at all Times. For none can doubt of that's being fo, in Admiring and Extolling which fuch Numbers of different Nations, Customs, Opinions, and Interests are unanimous. In SECTION VIII. fays LONGINUS, 1 There are FIVE FOUNTAINS or Principles of Sublimity; the Knowledge of which however will profit little, unless a Natural Fluof Expreffion be their common Subftratum, or Foundation. The Chiefeft, and I. Is a happy Genius, or LOFTY CONCEPTION of Things really grand. The ency ANNOTATION S. OBS. XI. 1 LONGINUS 5 Magnificent Compofition. He having first fhewn, What Faults are contrary to Sublimity, What Sublimity itself is, and How it differs from the Swelling Stile, he proceeds now to open to us the Five Fountains from whence true Sublimity has it's Rife; viz. 1. A Lofty Conception. 2. A Capacity of moving the Paffions. 3. The proper Management of Figures. 4. Splendid Expreffion. treats of the firft in Section IX; but of the fecond he fays Nothing, unless what little we meet with in Section XV, referving the Paffions for a feparate Treatife, which, if he ever wrote it, has perish'd: In Section XVI, he begins to treat of the third Fountain; of the fourth in Section XXX; and of the fifth in Section XXXIX. &c. II. Is II. Is a powerful CAPACITY OF MOVING THE PASSIONS.-These two, fays he, are Innate and Natural; but the reft we draw from Art and Learning. The III. Is the PROPER MANAGEMENT OF FIGURES, which are either of Words or Sentences. The IV. Is a Grand and SPLENDID EXPRESSION, which confifts in a judicious Choice of Words, the Decorations of Tropes, and Variation of Diction. The V. As the Sum of all the reft, is a Lofty and MAGNIFICENT COMPOSITION. We fhall, fays he, fpeak to every Particular, after obferving that CECILIUS has omitted the Second; who, if he makes Sublimity and Moving the Paffions the fame Thing, is mightily mistaken: for there are many low abject Paffions, far remote from SUBLIMITY, fuch as, Pity, Grief, Fear; and contrarily many Things Sublime, which have nothing to do with the Paffions. Thus (to give one Instance out of a thousand) HOMER very fublimely fays of the Giants, Ὄπαν ἐπ ̓ Οὐλύμπῳ μέμας θέμβυ· αὐτὰρ ἐπ ̓ Ὄσσῃ Odyff. a. ver. 314. On high Olympus, Offa's cumb'rous Weight PANE PANEGYRIC likewife, and other Orations adapted to fet forth Pomp and Shew, tho' they may abound in Magnificence and Sublimity, touch not upon the Paffions; hence it comes to pafs that many, who excell in Moving the Paf hons can do little in Panegyric, and the contrary. But if CECILIUS has omitted it, as thinking Moving the Paffions to have no Relation to Sublimity, he's ftill further from the Mark. For doubtless in Discourse nothing can be loftier or of greater Force, than in it's proper Place to warm the Affections: It infpires the Mind as it were, and conveys it into the very Height of SUBLIMITY. I am, SIR, Your's, &c. SIR, LETTER IV. Holt, March 20. YOUR our OUR not forbidding me to proceed, brings me to SECTION IX. in which our fa mous Critic treats of THE LOFTINESS OF CONCEPTION, And fays, That tho' it is the Gift of Nature, and not of Art; yet to attain and retain it, we must strive as much as lies in us to keep up and cherif Magnanimity : Becaufe τὸ τοῦτον ὕψα μεγαλοφροσιώης απήχημα, This Part of Sublimity is nothing but the Reflection or Eccho of Greatness Greatness of Mind or m Magnanimity. For, fays he, 'tis impoffible for fuch, who thro' the whole Course of their Life, have been used to a low and mean way of Thinking, to write any thing fo Sublime as to convey a lasting Pleasure and Admiration to all Pofterity.And hence it is that fuch Sentences as are really grand and lofty have chiefly proceeded from such as have been remarkable for Greatness of Soul. Thus ALEXANDER's Anfwer in Plutarch to PARMENIO faying -"I would accept of fuch Terms, were I Alexander," - when Darius offer'd his Daughter and half Perfia for Peace-"And fo would I, if I were Parmenio,"eafily distinguish'd the Magnanimous Spirit of n OBS. XII. m ANNOTATIONS. OUR Critic ob- more Sublimity in it, than all ferves here, that the fullen Silence of Ajax, upon meeting Ulyffes in the ELyfian Fields, fhew'd more Magnanimity of Spirit, and had the Words that could poffibly have been spoken by him. See Hom. Odv. λ. ver. 561. Virgil has imitated this in Dido's Behaviour there to Eneas En. 6. Illa folo fixos oculos averfa tenebat, &c. Dryden. |