Power, and other Externals; for to a Wife Man Nothing can appear excellent, the Despising of which implies a greater Degree of Excellency: Just so 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 noisy and turgid Flow of Words; which to despise is much more excellent than to admire. Besides, Says he, Our Mind is naturally excited to the Attention of any thing truly Sublime, and is pleased as much to hear it, as to have invented it. If therefore at any time you should meet with an Expreffion in Appearance Grand and Lofty, which 66 AY 66 66 OBS. X. k HE A. B. of "should tend to move those " 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 "hear be truly Eloquent ? "If they make a lively Impreffion upon you, and gain your Attention and Affent to "what they say; if they move " and animate your Paffions, " so as to raise you above your"self, you may be assured 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 in his Dialogues of Eloquence 66 66 66 66 "claimers." Stevenson's p. 64. 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 irrefistibly forces Attention, and when once impress'd on the Mind, the more 'tis thought of the more it pleases, and the brighter it shines. Upon the Whole, call that truly Sublime, which universally pleases all Persons, in all Places, and at all Times. For none can doubt of that's being so, in Admiring and Extolling which such Numbers of different Nations, Customs, Opinions, and Interests are unanimous. In SECTION VIII. says LONGINUS, 1 There are FIVE FOUNTAINS or Principles of Sublimity; the Knowledge of which however will profit little, unless a Natural Fluency of Expression be their common Substratum, or Foundation. The Chiefeft, and I. Is a happy Genius, or LOFTY CONCEPTION of Things really grand. The ANNOTATIONS. OBS. XI.1 LONGINUS 5 Magnificent Composition. He having first treats of the first in Section IX; shewn, What Faults are con- but of the fecond he says Notrary to Sublimity, What Subli- thing, unless what little we mity itself is, and How it differs meet with in Section XV, refrom the Swelling Stile, he pro serving the Paffions for a sepaceeds now to open to us the Five rate Treatise, which, if he Fountains from whence true Sub- ever wrote it, has perish'd: In limity has it's Rife; viz. 1. A Section XVI, he begins to treat Lofty Conception. 2. A Capa- of the third Fountain; of the city of moving the Paffions. 3. fourth in Section XXX; and of The proper Management of Fi- the fifth in Section XXXIX. gures. 4. Splendid Expression. &c. II. Is II. Is a powerful CAPACITY OF MOVING THE PASSIONS. - These two, says he, are Innate and Natural; but the rest 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 EX- PRESSION, which consists in a judicious Choice of Words, the Decorations of Tropes, and Variation of Diction. The V. As the Sum of all the rest, is a Lofty and MAGNIFICENT COMPOSITION. We shall, says he, speak to every Particular, after observing that CECILIUS has omitted the Second; who, if he makes Sublimity and Moving the Paffions the same Thing, is mightily mistaken: for there are many low abject Paffions, far remote from SUBLIMITY, such 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 says of the Giants, Ὄωαν ἐπ ̓ Οὐλύμπῳ μέμας θέμυ· αὐτὰρ ἐπ ̓ Ὄσση Odyff. A. ver. 314. On high Olympus, Ossa's cumb'rous Weight And, what's still more lofty and grand, adds, PANE PANEGYRIC likewise, and other Orations adapted to fet forth Pomp and Shew, tho they may abound in Magnificence and Sublimity, touch not upon the Passions; hence it comes to pass that many, who excell in Moving the Paffions 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 still 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 inspires the Mind as it were, and conveys it into the very Height of SUBLIMITY. I am, SIR, Your's, &c. SIR, Y LETTER IV. Holt, March 20. OUR not forbidding me to proceed, brings me to SECTION IX. in which our famous Critic treats of THE LOFTINESS OF CONCEPTION, And says, 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 cherish Magnanimity : Because τὸ τοιῦτον ὕψα μεγαλοφροσιώης ἀπήχημα, This Part of Sublimity is nothing but the Reflection or Eccho of Greatness m Greatness of Mind or Magnanimity. For, says he, 'tis impossible for such, who thro' the whole Course of their Life, have been used to a low and mean way of Thinking, to write any thing so Sublime as to convey a lasting Pleasure and Admiration to all Pofterity. And hence it is that such Sentences as are really grand and lofty have chiefly proceeded from such as have been remarkable for Greatness of Soul. Thus ALEXANDER's Answer in Plutarch to PARMENIO saying “I would accept when of fuch Terms, were I Alexander," Darius offer'd his Daughter and half Persia for Peace-"And fo would I, if I were Parmenio," * easily diftinguish'd the Magnanimous Spirit of Æn. 6. Illa folo fixos oculos aversa tenebat, &c. Varius Sucronenfis ait Æmilium Scaurum Rempublicam P. R. prodidiffe; Æmilius Scaurus negat : The other of Iphicrates, who ask'd his Accuter Aristophanes, An is accepta Pecuniâ Rempublicam proditurus effet? upon whose answering, No; says Iphicrates, Quod igitur Tu non fo cifsses, Ego feci? that |