to as riches, honours, fame, power, and all thore acquifitions "which are furrounded with a vaft external pomp, but can "have no intrinfic excellence in the eyes of men of sense, who "know that it is rather an excellence to despise them; and "that the poffeffors are by no means so justly the objects of "admiration, as those who might acquire them, but have " fuch dignity of foul, as to look down upon them with in“ difference.———So are we to judge, of grandeur in poetry ❝ and eloquence, and whether there may here be found a « certain outward thew of greatnefs, fupported by a profufion " of falfe and injudicious ornament, but fuch, as when accurately examined, proves devoid of folidity, and what it is "much more noble to contemn than to admire.It is "from NATURE that the foul is in fome fort elevated by the "true fublime, that it feels the generous transport, and « fwells with delight and exultation, as if, what is heard, « had been a conception of it's own. But when the fame thing, frequently repeated to a man of fenfe, and one conver"fant in works of genius, doth not raise his mind to generous "fentiments, doth not leave it filled with fomething greater μόνης τῆς ἀκοῆς σωζόμενον. Τέτο γὰρ τῷ ὄντι μέγα, ξ πολλὴ μὲν ἡ ἀναθεώρησις, δύσκολος δὲ, μᾶλλον δ ̓ ἀδύνατος ἡ κατεξα νάςασις· ἰσχυρὰ δὲ ἡ μνήμη, καὶ δυσεξά λειπτος.. Όλως δὲ καλὰ νόμιζε ὕψη καὶ ἀληθινὰ, τὰ διαπανὸς ἀρέσκοντα καὶ πᾶσιν ὅταν γὰρ τοῖς ἀπὸ διαφόρων ἐπιτηδευμάτων, βίων, ζήλων, ἡλικιῶν, λόγων ἓν τι καὶ ταυ τὸν ἅμα περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἅπασι δοκῇ, τόθ' ἡ ἐξ ἀσυμφώνων ὡς κρίσις καὶ συγκατάθεσις τὴν ἐπὶ τῷ θαυμαζομένῳ πίτιν ἰχυρὰν λαμβάνει καὶ ἀναμφίλεκτον. Long. S. 7. Ed. Pearce. CHA P. XI. + Doct. of Grace. B. 1. C. 9. p. 53. UT it is obferved ftill farther, that there is alfo a diver Blity of opinion with refpect to what is called sublime in compofition, even among men of extenfive knowledge and refinement that "this species of Eloquence changed it's na"ture, with the change of clime and language; and the fame expreffion, which in one place had the utmost fimplicity, “had in another, the utmost fublime +."--Here one might be tempted to answer that this might well be; and even in the fame place. For it is a point known to every fmatterer in Criticism, that these two qualities are fo far from being inconfiftent with each other, that they are frequently united by a natural and infeparable union. But as men of deep and extenfive learning, when they defcend to treat of those inferior matters of taste and compofition, do not confine themselves to the maxims and modes of speech used by meer critics and rhetoricians, it would seem disrespectful, not to be more distinct and explicit upon this point. That That a grand and pompous diction is the direct contrary to a fimple style, cannot be denied: but grand and pompous diction is not neceffarily the fame with true dignity and fublimity of compofition. It may be employed on a mean occasion; and then, instead of elevating the subject, it fets the meanness of it in the strongest light, fo as to excite ridicule. It may be employed upon a subject, tho' not quite ridiculous, yet disproportioned to such a style; and then it excites contempt and disgust or it may be used on more exalted subjects, but such as may not at once ftrike the imagination with their full force, but require fome effort or artifice, to engage his attention, and to impress them upon his mind; but even here, the effect may be defeated, if this effort, or this artifice be apparent; and if it does not seem the natural refult of real feeling and fenfibility. Again, when employed on fubjects of greatest dignity, and to convey sentiments of themselves highly elevated and affecting; it diffipates the mind and attention of the hearer, which should be concentered in one important point. It betrays an unworthy attention in the speaker to the inferior excellencies of style; when he had an object which should totally poffefs him, and leave him no leifure for any artificial felection or arrangement of his phrafes. It fhews that he is not himself fincerely affected with the noble emotion, when he has recourse to artifice and ornament; and therefore he cannot propagate it. Hence a fimplicity of ftyle, that is, fuch an energetic mode of expreffion as conveys the thought comcompleatly, without appearance of art, labour or affectation, is the true and proper garb of fublime fentiments. And hence, in all works of genius, fimplicity aud fublimity are fo far from being confidered as two oppofite qualities, that no terms are more frequent and familiar, than those of a noble fimplicity, and a natural, unaffected, fimple grandeur. + Doct. of Grace. B. 1. 1. 9. p. 54 & 55. But when it is afferted that fimple modes of speech are oftentimes most truely ennobled and fublime, no more is meant than this, that they are best fitted to convey fublime conceptions, and to give them their full impreffion upon the mind. And this is an inconteftable truth, however we may fometimes be perplexed with diftinctions, between Sublimity of Subject, or Sentiment, and Sublimity of Style. HUET, bishop of Avranches, cenfured Longinus for quoting the famous paffage of Genefis [AND GOD SAID LET THERE BE LIGHT: AND THERE WAS LIGHT] as an example of true Sublimity *. is true," faith he, "Mofes relates a matter which is grand, but expreffes it in a manner by no means grand." Boileau fupported the opinion of his favourite author: the Bishop, with his learned co-adjutor M. Le Clerc, replied with fharpnefs; which was again retorted by the Satyrift. "It The learned Bishop of Gloucester, when he comes to account for this difference of opinion, far from recurring to any minute verbal distinctions, juftly and ingenuously confiders the ideas fuggested by any mode of expreffion, and the sensations excited in the mind, in order to determine whether fuch expreffion be fublime or no. He obferves that nothing but the fimplicity of the controverted paffage could be seen or felt by a Jewish reader, to whom the ideas arifing from the knowledge of the true God and his attributes were familiar; and whenever ideas are familiar, they raise no emotion: but that the mind of a Greek must have been warmed and enlarged by the fame paffage; as it conveys ideas of Theology to him *I eft vrai que Moïfe rapporte lement. Oeuvres de Boileau, Vol. 2. une Chofe qui eft grande mais il Fol. Edit, Amft. exprime d'une façon qui ne l'est nul novel novel and unfamiliar: and of confequence he would naturally esteem it to be infinitely fublime.But not to mention that ideas, rendered familiar to the mind, may yet raise emotion; that altho' falfe pomp and outward greatnefs lofe their effect by familiarity, yet real and intrinfic grandeur (as the Greek critic obferves in the paffage above quoted) fupports it's dignity even after repeated examination; and the more accurate and exact, the more refined and enlarged the fentiments of the hearer may be, the more he is affected and transported by the inftances of fuch grandeur;—Not to insist on this, I fay; may it not be queftioned, without prefumption, whether his Lordship hath not left the controverfy yet undecided? For it still remains to be explained, how and whence it is, that many Christian readers, as well as the Poet Boileau, are affected by this paffage with grand emotions, altho' the ideas arifing from the Knowledge of God and his attributes, be familiar to them, and altho' they can raise themselves with as little pain as any ordinary Jew whatever, To the first good, first perfect, and first fair. A late writer of lefs eminence than my Lord Bishop, hath proposed a different decifion of this noted controverfy. I quote his obfervation at large, not from an opinion of it's intrinfic value, but as an inftance (for fuch I conceive it to be) of the great danger of refining in Criticism. "In defcribing fuperior beings," faith the author of a Book called Elements of Criticism*, "the reader's imagination, *V. 1. C.4. "unable to fupport itfelf in a strained elevation, falls often "as from an height, and finks even below it's ordinary tone. "The following inftance comes luckily in view, for a better "illustration cannot be given; God faid, let there be light, and there |