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nation between its impression on the ear, and those appearances in the heavens which are regarded as its signs or forerunners, must not only cooperate with the circumstances mentioned by Mr Burke, in imparting to Darkness the character of the Terrible, but must strengthen, by a process still more direct, the connexion between the ideas of Darkness and of mere Elevation.

"Fulmina gigni de crassis, altèque, putandum est,
Nubibus extructis: nam cœlo nulla sereno,

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Nec leviter densis mittuntur nubibus unquam.'

Eripiunt subitò nubes cœlumque diemque

Teucrorum ex oculis; ponto nox incubat atra;
Intonuêre poli." +

The same direction is naturally given to the fancy, by the Darkness which precedes hurricanes; and also, during an eclipse of the sun, by the disastrous twilight shed on half the nations. Even in common discourse, as well as in poetry, we speak of the fall of night, and of the fall of evening.

Ορώρει δ' οὐρανόθεν νύξ. "Down rushed the night."

In general, fancy refers to the visible heavens, the source of Darkness as well as of Light; and accordingly, both of these (as Mr. Burke has remarked,) have sometimes an important place assigned to them, in sublime descriptions. They both, indeed, accord and harmonize perfectly with this natural group of associations; -abstracting altogether from the powerful aid which they occasionally contribute in strengthening the other impressions connected with the Terrible.

And here, I must beg leave to turn the attention of my readers, for a moment, to the additional effect which these conspiring associations (more particularly those arising from religious impressions) lend to every object which we consider as Sublime, in the literal sense of that word. I before took notice of the sublime flight of the Ea

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gle; but what an accession of poetical sublimity has the Eagle derived from the attributes ascribed to him in ancient mythology, as the sovereign of all the other inhabitants of the air; as the companion and favorite of Jupiter; and as the bearer of his armour in the war against the giants! In that celebrated passage of Pindar, (so nobly imitated by Gray and by Akenside) where he describes the power of music in soothing the angry passions of the gods; the abruptness of the transition from the thunderbolt to the eagle; and the picturesque minuteness of the subsequent lines, sufficiently show what a rank was occupied by this bird in the warm imagination of Grecian idolatry.*-Of the two English poets, just mentioned, it is observable that the former has made no farther reference to Jupiter, than as carrying "the feathered king on his scepter'd hand;" but in order to compensate for this omission, he has contrived, in his picture of the eagle's sleep, by the magical charm of figurative language, to suggest, indirectly, the very same sublime image with which the description of Pindar commences:

"Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie,

The terror of his beak, and lightning of his eye." +

After these remarks, it will not appear surprising that the same language should be transferred from the objects of religious worship, to whatever is calculated to

Καὶ τὸν αἰχματὰν κεραυνὸν σβεννύεις

Δενάου πυρός. Εΰ

δει δ ̓ ἀνὰ σκάπτῳ Διὸς αὐετὸς, &c. &c.

May I be permitted to add, that in Akenside's imitation, as well as in the original, the reader is prepared for the short episode of the Eagle, (which in all the three descriptions is unquestionably the most prominent feature) by the previous allusion to the xsgαuvòv ásváοu Tugos;-and to suggest my doubts, whether in Gray, the transition to this picture from Thracia's hills and the Lord of War, be not a little too violent, even for lyric poetry.-The English reader may judge of this, from the verses of Akenside

"Those lofty strings

That charm the mind of gods: that fill the courts

Of wide Olympus with oblivion sweet

Of evils, with immortal rest from cares,
Assuage the terrors of the throne of Jove;
And quench the formidable thunderbolt
Of unrelenting fire. With slacken'd wings,
While now the solemn concert breathes around,
Incumbent o'er the sceptre of his lord,

Sleeps the stern eagle; by the number'd notes
Possess'd, and satiate with the melting tone:
Sovereign of birds."

excite the analogous, though comparatively weak sentiments of admiration and of wonder. The word suspicere (to look up) is only one example out of many which might be mentioned. Cicero has furnished us with instances of its application, both to the religious sentiment, and to the enthusiastic admiration with which we regard some of the objects of taste. "Esse præstantem aliquam æternamque naturam, et eam suspiciendam admirandamque hominum generi, pulchritudo mundi ordoque rerum cœlestium cogit confiteri." *" Eloquentiam, quam suspicerent omnes, quam admirarentur," &c.f On the latter occasion, as well as on the former, the words suspicio and admiror are coupled together, in order to convey more forcibly one single idea.

On this particular view of the sublime, considered in connexion with religious impressions, I have only to take notice farther, of a remarkable coincidence between their influence and that of the feelings excited by literal Sublimity, in assimilating the poetical effects of the two opposite dimensions of Depth and of Height. In the case of literal Sublimity, I have already endeavoured to account for this assimilation. In that now before us, it seems to be the obvious result of those conceptions so natural to the human mind, which have universally suggested a separation of the invisible world into two distinct regions; the one situated at an immense distance above the earth's surface; the other at a corresponding distance below;-the one a blissful and glorious abode, to which virtue is taught to aspire as its final reward; the other inhabitated by beings in a state of punishment and of degradation. The powers to whom the infliction of this punishment is committed, cannot fail to be invested by the fancy as the ministers and executioners of divine justice, with some of the attributes which are characteristical of the Sublime; and this association it seems to have been a great object of the heathen mythology to strengthen, as much as possible, by the fabulous accounts of the alliances between the celestial and the infernal deities; and by

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other fictions of a similar tendency.

Pluto was the son of Saturn, and the brother of Jupiter; Proserpine, the daughter of Jupiter and of Ceres; and even the river Styx was consecrated into a divinity, held in veneration and dread by all the Gods.

The language of the inspired writings is, on this as on other occasions, beautifully accommodated to the irresistible impressions of nature; availing itself of such popular and familiar words as upwards and downwards, above and below, in condescension to the frailty of the human mind, governed so much by sense and imagination, and so little by the abstractions of philosophy. Hence the expression of fallen Angels, which, by recalling to us the eminence from which they fell, communicates, in a single word, a character of Sublimity to the bottomless abyss: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" The Supreme Being is himself represented as filling hell with his presence; while the throne where he manifests his glory is conceived to be placed on high: "If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, thou art there also."

To these associations, Darkness, Power, Terror, Eternity, and various other adjuncts of Sublimity, lend their aid in a manner too palpable to admit of any com

ment.

CHAPTER THIRD.

GENERALIZATIONS OF SUBLIMITY IN CONSEQUENCE OF ASSOCIATIONS RESULTING FROM THE PHENOMENA OF GRAVITATION, AND FROM THE OTHER PHYSICAL ARRANGEMENTS WITH WHICH OUR SENSES ARE CONVERSANT.

WHEN WE confine our views to the earth's surface, a variety of additional causes conspire, with those already suggested, to strengthen the association between Elevated Position and the ideas of Power, or of the Terrible. I shall only mention the security it affords against a hostile attack, and the advantages it yields in the use of missile weapons; two circumstances which give an expressive propriety to the epithet commanding, as employed in the language of Fortification.

In other cases, elevated objects excite emotions still more closely allied to admiration and to awe, in consequence of our experience of the effect of heavy bodies falling downwards from a great height. Masses of water, in the form of a mountain-torrent, or of a cataract, present to us one of the most impressive images of irresistible impetuosity which terrestrial phenomena afford; and accordingly have an effect, both on the eye and on the ear, of peculiar Sublimity, of which poets and orators have often availed themselves to typify the overwhelming powers of their respective arts.

"Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres

Quem super notas aluêre ripas,

Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo

Pindarus ore."

"Now the rich stream of music winds along,

Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong;

Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign;

Now rolling down the steep amain,

Headlong impetuous see it pour,

The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar."

"At ille," says Quinctilian, speaking of the different kinds of eloquence, "qui saxa devolvat, et pontem in

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