CHAP. sources of the sublime; so that his noble designs were stifled in the birth, for want of being Of the Su- sufficiently guarded against the malignant pow blime and Pathetic. ers of ridicule *. We need not however despair of yet seeing them put in practice; as far at least as the heavy and half-frozen spirits of a northern people are capable of comprehending or enjoying them: for it is not long, since I beheld a most edifying specimen of the happy effects, which might be thus produced. Amidst some very grand scenery of woods, rocks, and mountains, was a spacious and picturesque cave; which, as some improver of this school naturally conceived, only wanted a little terror to render it truly sublime. This, he easily supplied, by prevailing on the then proprietor to place a monstrous figure of a giant or cyclops over the entrance of it, with a huge stone suspended in his hand, and ready to fall upon the head of any person who should presume to enter. Not, however, calculating correctly the exact distance or degree of danger necessary to produce the desired effect, the stone actually did fall; and, coming nearer to the head of one of the spectators, than the laws of the system allow, it has brought the scheme into such disrepute among the ignorant mechanics * See Treatise on Oriental Gardening, and Heroic Epistle to its Author, Sir W. Chambers. and barbarous country gentlemen of the neighbourhood, that there is some danger of the benefit of the examplé being lost to the public. 69. There is, nevertheless, another source of the sublime applicable to the same art, which is still untried; though the same difficulty of calculating the exact degree of proximity in the danger may arise to obstruct it. The author of the Inquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful states that all noxious reptiles and wild beasts of prey are sublime; and all innocent and domesticated animals, mean and contemptible *: wherefore a snake or a scorpion pent up in the corner of a cave, or a wolf or a bear chained at the mouth of it, may produce, perhaps, exactly the effect required; though their being. pent up or chained is not compatible with wildness. But, nevertheless, I know of no other means of preventing the too near approximation of the danger; which, as the author of the system allows, would dissipate all the delight, and very probably produce a degree of pain far beyond that, which he thinks an ingredient of the sublime. I have lately heard of a lion in plaster or wax being employed for this purpose; but though he is said to be very correctly imitated, and to look very fierce, I do not find that any person is at all afraid of * P. II. f. ii. and v. СНАР. I. Of the Sublime and Pathetic. CHAP. Of the Su- him, or that he adds at all to the sublimity of the scene. 70. Some tasteless persons, indeed, may deny Pathetic. altogether the justness of this distinction between noxious and innocent, or wild and tame animals; and may even go so far into a contrary opinion, as to maintain that the game cock, who, in a naval engagement, stalked majestically about the deck, and crowed and clapped his wings after every broadside, presents a more sublime image to the mind, than any noxious reptile, that lurks concealed in its dark hiding place, ready to strike its envenomed sting into every unwary obtruder. Nay, it may be thought that this gallant and heroic bird is an object of more real dignity and elevation of character than the eagle or the falcon, that pounces upon its defenceless prey though the latter may, indeed, afford a finer, subject of description to the poet, both by displaying greater energy of body, and by leading the imagination into the wild haunts of forests and mountains, which would supply accompaniments of grand poetical, and picturesque scenery, instead of the humble accessories of the farm-yard, the dunghill, or the cock-pit. 71. It may also be thought that, independent of the effect of such accompaniments, the dog who fought against the murderers of his master, and, after being mortally wounded in his J. defence, lay two days by his lifeless body, and then expired in attempting to seize one of the persons, who took it up, is an object of more true sublimity, than a wolf worrying a sheep, or a lion or tiger springing from the covert of a thicket upon their unsuspecting prey *. 72. No Dutch painter ever exhibited an image less imposing, or less calculated to inspire awe and terror, or any other of the above-mentioned author's symptoms or sources of the sublime, (unless, indeed, it be a stink) than the celebrated dog of Ulysses, lying upon a dunghill, covered with vermin, and in the agonies of death: yet when, in such circumstances, on hearing the voice of his old master, who had been absent twenty years, he pricks his ears, wags his tail and expires, what heart is not at once melted, elevated, and expanded with all those glowing feelings, which Longinus has so well described as the genuine effects of the true sublime? That master, too-the patient, crafty, and obdurate Ulysses; who encounters every danger, and bears every calamity with a constancy unshaken, a spirit undepressed, and a temper unruffled; when he sees this faithful old servant perishing in want, misery, and neglect-yet still remembering his long lost * Lions and tigers, like all other animals of the cat kind, are cowardly and treacherous; and never openly face an enemy, but always attack by surprise. C c СНАР. I. Of the Sublime and Pathetic. CHAP. blime and benefactor, and collecting the last effort of expiring nature to give a sign of joy and graOf the Su- tulation at his return-hides his face and wipes Pathetic. away the tear!-This is true sublimity of character, which is always mixed with tenderness; mere sanguinary ferocity being terrible and odious, but never sublime. ayados rohudanguroL avdges-Men prone to tears are brave, says the proverbial Greek hemistich: for courage, which does not arise from,mere coarseness of organization, but from that sense of dignity and honour, which constitutes the generous pride of a high mind, is founded in sensibility. 73. It is true that, through all nature, the noxious and destructive powers are more vigorous and energetic in their operations than those of beneficence and preservation; whose efforts, being more gradual and progressive, are more tame and quiet. Consequently energy, which is the fundamental principle and indispensable requisite of all sublimity of character, is more frequently and more manifestly displayed in bad, than in good actions; and in the pernicious, than in the amiable qualities of the mind. But, nevertheless, the most amiable and bèneficent qualities are not unsusceptible of it; and when it does invigorate their exertions, they rise far above any of their opposites. Weigh the emancipator of America and benefactor of mankind against any of the mighty conquerors |