Dionysius Longinus on the sublime

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DIONYSIUS ms uSs* *

ON THE

SUBLIME:

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK.
- WITH,

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS,

AND ‘
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE

LITE, WRITINGS, AND CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR.

a
By WILLIAM SMITH, D. D,

DEAN OF CHESTER.

Thee, great Longinus! all the Nine inspire,
And fill their critic with a poet’s fire ;
An ardent judge, who, zealous in bis trust,
With warmth gives sentence, and is always just;
Whose own example strengthens all his laws,
And is himself the great Sublime he draws.
POPE.

LONDON: |

PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON ; J. NUNN; LONGMAN, HURST,
REES, ORME, AND BROWN; R. PRIESTLEY; LACKINGTON, HUGHES,
HARDING, MAVOR, AND JONES; J. CUTHELL 5 SCATCHERD AND
LETTERMAN ; AND OGLE, DUNCAN, AND CO.

- 1819.

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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

GEORGE, EARL OF MACCLESFIELD,

Viscount Parker of Ewelme, and Baron Parker of Macclesfield.

My Lorp,

The greatest degree of purity and splendour
united, that Loncinus has for some ages appeared
in, was under the patronage of the late Lord Mac-
CLESFIELD. A writer of so much spirit and judg-
ment, had a just claim to the protection of so ele-
vated a genius, and so judicious an encourager of
polite learning. Longinus ts now going to appear
én an English dress, and begs the support of your
Lorpsuip’s name. He has undergone no farther
alteration, than what was absolutely necessary to
make him English. His sense is faithfully repre-
sented ; but whether this translation has any of the
original spirit, zs a decision peculiar only to those
who can relish unaffected grandeur and natural
Sublimity, with the same judicious taste as your
Lordship. |

It is needless to say any thing to your Lordship
about the other parts of this performance, since they
alone can piead effectually for themselves. I went
through this work, animated with a view of pleas-

iv '_ DEDICATION.

ing every body; and publish it in some fear of
pleasing none. Yet I lay hold with pleasure on
this opportunity of paying my respects to your
Lorpsuip, and giving this public proof, that
I an,

My Lorp,
Your Lordship’s most obedient

and most humble Servant,

WILLIAM SMITH.

PREFACE,

Ir will, without doubt, be expected, that the Reader should
be made privy to the reasons upon which this Work was under-
taken, and is now made public. ‘The intrinsic beauty of the
piece itself first allured me to the attempt ; and a regard for
the public, especially for those who might be unable to read
the original, was the main inducement to its publication.

The Treatise on the SupLiME had slept for several ages,
covered up in the dust of libraries, till the middle of the six-
teenth century. The first Latin version by Gabriel de Petra
was printed at Geneva in 1612. But the first good translation
of it into any modern language, was the French one of the
famous Boileau, which, though not always faithful to the text,
yet has an elegance and a spirit which few will ever be able
to equal, much less to surpass.

The present translation was finished before [ knew of any
prior attempt to make Longinus speak English. The first
translation of him I met with, was published by Mr. Welsted,
in #724. But I was very much surprised, upon a perusal, to
find it only Boileau’s translation misrepresented and mangled.
For every beauty is impaired, if not totally effaced, and every
error (even down to those of the printer) most injudiciously
preserved. .

I have since accidentally met with two other English ver-
sions of this Treatise; one by J. Hall, Esq. London, 1652 ;
the other without a name, but printed at Oxford in 1698, and
said in the title-page to have been compared with the French
ef Boileau. I saw nothing in either of these which did not
yield the greatest encouragement to a new attempt.

No less than nine years have intervened since the finishing

vi PREFACE,

of this translation, in which space it has been frequently re-
vised, submitted to the censure of friends, and amended again
and again by a more attentive study of the original. The de-
sign was, if possible, to make it read like an original : whether
I have succeeded in this, the bulk of my readers may judge ;
but whether the translation be good, or come any thing near
to the life, the spirit, the energy of Longinus, is a decision pe-
culiar to men of learning and taste, who alone know the diffi-
culties which attend such an undertaking, and will be impar-
tial enough to give the translator the necessary indulgence.

~ Longinus himself was never accurately enough published,
nor thoroughly understood, till Dr. Pearce * did him justice in
his late editions at London, My thanks are due to that gen-
tleman, not only for his correct editions, on account of which
the whole learned world is indebted to him, but for those ani-
madversions and corrections of this translation, with which he
so kindly favoured me. Most of the remarks and observa-
tions were drawn up before I had read his Latin notes.

I am not the least in pain about the pertinency of those in-
stances which I have brought from the sacred writers, as well
as from some of the finest of onr own country, to illustrate the
criticisms of Longinus. I am only fearful, lest, among the
multiplicity of such as might be had, I may be thought to
have omitted some of the best. Iam sensible, that what I
have done, might be done much better; but if I have the
goed fortune to contribute a little towards the fixing a true ju-
dicious taste, and enabling my readers to distinguish sense
from sound, grandeur from pomp, and the Sublime from fus-
tian and bombast, I shall think my time well spent ; and shall
be ready to submit to the censures of a judge, but shall only
smile at the snarling of what is commonly called a critic.

~

—

* Now Lord Bishop of Rochester,

CONTENTS.

a

Some account of the Life, Writings, and Character
Of Longinus. .cseeececvveecesecereccsees
Secr. 1.—That Cecilius’s treatise. on the Sublime
is imperfect, and why .....+eeeee.
2.—Whether the Sublime may be learned ....
3.—Of Bombast 1... 0. cccceescesveees
Of Paerilittes. sc sicsscecscccveess

Of the Parenthyrse, or ill-timed emotion
4.—Of the Frigid. .....cccccccccsercs
5.—Whence these imperfections take their
TISE coc cccececcccscrevecesese
6.—That a knowledge of the true Sublime is
attamable .. cee esc ec cesccese
7.—How the Sublime may be known. .....
8.—That there are five sources of the Sub-
HME eis weeds cee ec cece ce reces
9.—Of Elevation of Thought. .....eeee0%
10.—Tkat a choice and connexion of proper
circumstances will produce the Sub-

BMC sc ssvercvewesvecesecioves
11.—Of Amplification. .....ccceneevee’
12,—That the definition which the writers of
rhetoric give of Amplification is im-

PROPEL sisi cecccccevecsccccecs
13.—Of Plato’s Sublimity ......0ccccces
Of Imitation ..cseessesevcccceves
14.—That the best authors ought to be our
models in writing .sscscccccceees
15.—Of Iragess ici vise sce ccs cc tecccae
¥6.—OF Figures . 00s oveiseseccceeccee
17.—That Figures and Sublimity mutually as-
sist one another. ...sscccccces cers
18.—Of Question and Interrogation ........
19.—Of Asyndetofis’. 6s wccescasceecce’s
20.——-Of Heaps of Figures... .0.eesceecee
21.—That Copulatives weaken the style .....

Vill

CONTENTS.

Scr. 22.—Of Hyperbatons. ...ccceccacsecece

23.—Of Change of Number. .ccseccsceecs
24.—That Singulars sometimes cause Sub-
EIS 5 a ass e ¢ Sta © '9'p.4a olen a:x9r0
25.—Of Change of Tenserssesccescseses
26.—Of Change of Person ..ccacescvcces
27.—Of another Change of Person ..e..e-s
28.-—Of Periphrasis or Circumlocution ......
29.—-That Circumlocution carried too far grows
INsipId sé gece ss cevciovencssncdes
30.—Of.Choice of Terms... ..cecsdecce
31.—OFf Vulgar Terms .ccccccaccccccas
32.—Of Multitude of Metaphors......eee0s
33.—-That the Sublime, with some faults, is bet-
ter than what is correct and faultless

_ without being Sublime... ceeeees
34.—By the preceding rule Demosthenes and
Hyperides are compared, and the pre-
ference given to the former ...ee...
$5.—That Plato is in all respects superior to
Lysias; and in general, that whatever

-is great and uncommon soonest raises
admiration .eeeesecccccsseceves
36.—Sublime writers considered in a parallel
MERGE cc dain a: acele:n-cip ile o> aid eee
37.—Of Similes and Comparisons .eeeesee
38.—Of Hyperboles .....cecscovcesves
39.—Of Composition or Structure of Words..
40,-- Of apt Connexion of the constituent parts
Of discOUTSe. ee eeeereaveseeeces

41.—-That broken and precipitate measures de-

base the Sublime. ...ee.cececccee

That Words of short syllables are preju-

dicial to the Sublime .eee-eeeecuees

42.—That Contraction of Style diminishes the

Suwhline 226.515 4.0 adel) WOT
43.--That low terms blemish the Sublime .

44.—The scarcity of sublime writers accounted

EY We Pe WE OR Vr Sa

180

184

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE

LIFE, WRITINGS, § CHARACTER,

OF

LONGINUS.

THERE is no part of history more
agreeable in itself, nor more improving to
the mind, than the lives of those who have
distinguished themselves from the herd: of
mankind, and set themselves up to public re-
gard. A particular tribute of admiration is
always due, and is generally paid, to the
hero, the philosopher, and the scholar. It
requires, indeed, a strength of understanding
and a solidity of judgment, to distinguish
those actions which are truly great, from
such as have only the show and appearance
ofit. The noise of victories and the pomp of
triumphs are apt to make deeper impressions
on common minds, than the calm and even
labours of men of a studious and philosophi-
cal turn, though the latter are, for the most

B

12 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

sorrowful remembrance of what noble edi-
fices and how fine a city once crowned the
place. ‘Tyrants and barbarians are not less
pernicious to learning and improvement, than
to cities and nations. Bare names are pre-
served and handed down to us, but little
more. Who were the destroyers of all the
rest, we know with regret, but the value of
what is destroyed, we can only guess and
deplore.

; What countryman Longinus
Suidas. was, cannot certainly be disco-
J. Jonsius. ;
Dr.Pearce, Yered- Some fancy him a Sy-

rian, and that he was born at
Emisa, because an uncle of his, one Fronto, a
rhetorician, is called by Suidas an Emisenian.
But others, with greater probability, suppose
himan Athenian. Thathe was a Grecian, is
plain from two * passages in the following
_ Treatise; in one of which he uses this ex-
pression, ‘‘ If we Grecians;” and in the other
he expressly calls Demosthenes his country-
man. Hisname was Dionysius Longinus, to
which Suidas makes the addition of Cassius ;
but that of his father is entirely unknown; a
point (it is true) of small importance, since

* See Sect. xii.

OF LONGINUS. > Ss

ason of excellence and worth, reflects a-glory
upon, instead of receiving any from, his father.
By his mother Frontonis he was allied, after :
two or three removes, to the celebrated Plu-
tarch. We are also at a loss for the employ-
mentof his parents, their station in life, andthe
beginning of his education ; but a * remnant
of his own writings informs us, that his youth
was spent in travelling with them, which gave
him an opportunity to increase his knowledge,
and open his mind with that generous enlarge-
ment, which men of sense and judgment will
unavoidably receive, from variety of objects
and diversity of conversation. The improve-
ment of his mind was always uppermost in his
thoughts, and his thirst after knowledge led
him to those channels by which it is con-
veyed. Wherever men of learning were to be
found, he was present, and lost no opportunity
of forming a familiarity and intimacy with
them. Ammonius and Origen, philosophers
of no small reputation in that age, were two
of those whom he visited and heard with the
greatest attention. As he was not deficient
in vivacity of parts, quickness of apprehen-
sion; and strength of understanding, the pro-

* Fragment, quintum.

14 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

gress of his improvement must needs have
been equal to his industry and diligence in
seeking after it. He was capable of learning
whatever he desired, and no doubt he desired
to learn whatever was commendable and
useful.

The travels of Longinus ended with his ar-
rival at Athens, where he fixed his residence.
This city was then, and had been for some
ages, the University of the world. It was the
constant resort of all who were able to teach,
or willing toimprove; the grand and lasting
reservoir of philosophy and learning, from
whence were drawn every rivulet and stream
that watered and cultivated the rest of the
world. Here our author pursued the studies
of humanity and philosophy with the greatest
) application, and soon became the most re-
markable person ina place so remarkable as
Athens. Here he published his Treatise on
the Sublime, which raised his reputation to
such a height, as no critic, either before or
since, durst ever aspire to. He was a perfect
master of the ancient writings of Greece, and
intimately acquainted not only with the works
but the very genius and spirit with which
they were written. His cotemporaries there
had such an implicit faith in his judgment,

OF LONGINUS. 15,

and were so well convinced of the perfection
of his taste, that they appointed him judge
of a!l the ancient authors, and learned to dis-
tinguish between the genuine and spurious
productions of antiquity, from his opinions
and sentiments about them. He was looked
upon by them as infallible and unerring, and
therefore by his decrees were fine writing
and fine sense established, and his sentence
stamped its intrinsic value upon every piece.
‘The entrusting any one person with so deli-
cate a commission, is an extraordinary ine
stance of complaisance: it is without a pre-
cedent in every age before, and unparalleled
in any of the succeeding ; as it is fit it should,
till another Longinus shall arise. But in re-
gard to him, it does honour to those who
lodged it in his hands. For no classic writer
ever suffered in character from an erroneous
censure of Longinus. He was, as I observed
before, a perfect master of the style and pe-
culiar turn of thought of them all, and could
discern every beauty or blemish in every
composition. In vain might inferior critics
exclaim against this monopoly of judgment.
Whatever objections they raised against it
were mere air and unregarded sounds. And
whatever they blamed, or whatever they com-

16 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

mended, was received or rejected by the-
public, only as it met with the
Eunapius. approbation of Longinus, or.was
confirmed and ratified by his so-
vereign decision. :

His stay at Athens seems to have been of
long continuance, and that city perhaps had
never enjoyed so able a Professor of fine
learning, eloquence, and philosophy united.
Whilst he taught here, he had, amongst others,
the famous Porphyry for his pupil. The sys-
tem of philosophy which he went upon, was
the Academic; for whose founder, Plato, he
had so great a veneration, that he celebrated
the anniversary of his birth with the highest
solemnity. There is something agreeable even
in the distant fancy; how delightful then
must those reflections have been, which could
not but arise in the breast of Longinus, that
he was explaining and recommending the
doctrine of Plato, in those calm retreats
where he himself had written; that he was
teaching his scholars the eloquence of De-
mosthenes, on the very spot, perhaps, where
he had formerly thundered ; and was pro-
fessing rhetoric in the place where Cicero had
studied !

The mind of our Author was not so con-

OF LONGINUS. 17

tracted, as to be fit only for a life of stillness
and tranquillity. Fine genius, and a true phi-
losophic turn, qualify not only for study and
retirement, but will enable their owners to
shine, I will not say in more honourable, but
in more conspicuous views, and to appear
on the public stage of life with dignity and
honour. And it was the fortune of Longinus
to be drawn from the contemplative shades of
Athens, to mix in more active scenes, to train
up young princes to virtue and glory, to guide
the busy and ambitious passions of the great
to noble ends, to struggle for, and at last to
die,in the cause of liberty.

During the residence of Longi- Trebellius
nus at Athens, the Emperor Va- Pollio.
lerian had undertaken an expedi-
tion against the Persians, who had revolted
from the Roman yoke. He was assisted in
it by Odenathus, king of Palmyra, who, after
the death of Valerian, carried on the war with
uncommon spirit and success. Gallienus, who
succeeded his father Valerian at Rome, being
a prince of a weak and effeminate soul, of the
most dissolute and abandoned mannexg, with-
out any shadow of worth in himself, was
willing to get a support in the valour of Ode-
nathus, and therefore he made him his part-

18 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

ner in empire by the title of Augustus, and
decreed his medals, strucken in honour of the
Persian victories, to be current coin through-
out the empire. Odenathus, says an historian,
seemed born for the empire of the world, and
would probably have risen to it, had he not
been taken off, in a career of victory, by the
treachery of his own relations. His abilities
were so great, and his actions so illustrious,
that they were above the competition of every
person then alive, except his own wife Ze-
nobia, alady of so extraordinary magnanimity
and virtue, that she outshone even her hus-
band, and engrossed the attention and admi-
ration of the world. She was descended from
the ancient race of Ptolemy and Cleopatra,
and had all those qualifications which are the
ornament of her own, and the glory of the
other sex. A miracle of beauty, but chaste
to a prodigy: in punishing the bad, inflexibly
severe ; in rewarding the good, or relieving
the distressed, benevolent and active, Splen-
did, but not profuse ; and generous without
prodigality. Superior to the toils and hard-
ships of war, she was generally on horseback ;
and would sometimes march on foot with
her soldiers. She was skilled in several lan-
guages, and is said to have drawn up herself

OF LONGINUS. 19

an epitome of the Alexandrian and Oriental
history.

The great reputation of Longinus had been
wafted to the ears of Zenobia, who prevailed
upon him to quit Athens, and undertake the
education of her sons. He quickly gained
an uncommon share in her esteem, as she
found him not only qualified to form the
tender minds of the young, but to improve
the virtue, and enlighten the understanding
of the aged. In his conversation she spent
the vacant hours of her life, modelling her
sentiments by his instructions, and steering
herself by his counsels in the whole series of
her conduct; and in carrying on that plan of
empire, which she herself had formed, which
her husband Odenathus had begun to execute,
but had left imperfect. The number of com-
petitors, who, in the vicious and scandalous
reign of Gallienus, set up for the empire, but
with abilities far inferior to those of Zenobia,
gave her an opportunity to extend her con-
quests, by an uncommon tide of success, over
all the East. Claudius, who succeeded Gal-
lienus at Rome, was employed during his
whole reign, which was very short, against
the Northern nations. Their reduction was
afterwards completed by Aurelian, the great-

20 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

est soldier that had for a long time worn the
imperial purple. He then turned his arms
against Zenobia, being surprised as well at the
rapidity of her conquests, as enraged that she
had dared to assume the title of Queen of
the East. i

He marched against her with
the best of his forces, and met with
no check in his expedition till he
advanced as far as Antioch. Zenobia was there
in readiness to oppose his further progress.
But the armies coming to an engagement at
Daphne, near Antioch, she was defeated by the
good conduct of Aurelian, and leaving Antioch
at his mercy, retired with her army to Emisa.
‘The Emperor marched immediately after, and
found her ready to give him battle in the
plains before the city. The dispute was
sharp and bloody on both sides, till at last the
victory inclined a second time to Aurelian ;
and the unfortunate Zenobia, not daring to
confide in the Emisenians, was again com-
pelled to retire towards her capital, Palmyra.
As the town was strongly fortified, and the
inhabitants full of zeal for her service, and
affection for her person, she made no doubt
of defending herself here, in spite of the
warmest efforts of Aurelian, till she could

Vi opiscus.
Zosimus.

OF LONGINUS. ot

raise new forces, and venture again into the
open field. Aurelian was not long behind,
his activity impelled him forwards, to crown
his former success, by completing the con-
quest of Zenobia. His march was terribly
harassed by the frequent attacks of the Sy-
rian banditti; and when he came up, he
found Palmyra so strongly fortified and so
bravely defended, that though he invested it
with his army, yet the siege was attended
with a thousand difficulties. His army was
daily weakened and dispirited by the gallant
resistance of the Palmyrenians, and his own
life sometimes in the utmost danger. Tired
at last with the obstinacy of the besieged,
and almost worn out by continued fatigues,
he sent Zenobia a written summons to sur-
render, as if his words could strike terror into
her, whom by force of arms he was unable
to subdue.

AURELIAN, EMPEROR OF THE ROMAN
WORLD, AND RECOVERER OF THE EAST,
TO ZENOBIA AND HER ADHERENTS.

‘‘ Why am I forced to command, what
you ought voluntarily to have done already ?
I charge you to surrender, and thereby

5g THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

avoid the certain penalty of death, which
otherwise attends you. You, Zenobia, shall
spend the remainder of your life, where I, by
the advice of the most honourable senate,
shall think proper to place you. Your jewels,
your silver, your gold, your finest apparel, .
your horses, and your camels, you shall re-
sign to the disposal of the Romans, in order
to preserve the Palmyrenians from being di-
vested of all their former privileges.”

Zenobia, not in the least affrighted by the
menace, nor soothed by the cruel promise of
a life in exile and obscurity ; resolved by her
answer to convince Aurelian, that he should
find the stoutest resistance from her, whom
he thought to frighten into compliance. This
answer was drawn up by Longinus in a spirit
peculiar to himself, and worthy of his mis-
tress.

ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF THE EAST, TO THE
EMPEROR AURELIAN.

«« Never was such an unreasonable demand
proposed, or such rigorous terms offered, by
any but yourself. Remember, Aurelian, that
in war, whatever is done, should be done by

OF LONGINUS. 3S

valour. You imperiously command me to
surrender; but can you forget, that Cleo-
patra chose rather to die with the title of
Queen, than to live in any inferior dignity ?
We expect succours from Persia; the Sa-
racens are arming in our cause; even the
Syrian banditti have already defeated your
army. Judge what you are to expect from
a conjunction of these forces. You shall be
compelled to abate that pride, with which,
as if you were absolute lord of the universe,
you command me to become your captive.”

Aurelian, says Vopiscus, had no sooner
read this disdainful letter, than he blushed
(not so much with shame, as) with indigna-
tion. He redoubled his efforts, invested the
town more closely than ever, and kept it in
continual alarms. No art was left untried,
which the conduct of a general could suggest,
or the bravery of angry soldiers could put in
execution. He intercepted the aid which
was marching from Persia to its relief. He
reduced the Saracen and Armenian forces,
either by strength of arnis, or the subtilty
of intrigues; till at length, the Palmyre-
nians, deprived of all prospect of succour,
and worn out by continual assaults from with-

24 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

out, and by famine within, were obliged to
open the gates and receive their conqueror.
The Queen and Longinus could not tamety
stay to put on their chains. Mounted on the
swiftest camels, they endeavoured to fly into’
Persia, to make fresh head against Aurelian,
who entering the city was vexed to find his vic-
tory imperfect, and Zenobia yet unsubdued.
A body of the swiftest horse was immediately
dispatched in pursuit, who overtook and
made them prisoners as they were

Zosimus. crossing the Euphrates. Aure-
lian, after he had settled Palmyra,

returned to Emisa, whither the captives were
carried after him. He sat on his tribunal to re-
ceive Zenobia, or rather to insult her. The Ro-
man soldiers throng around her, and demand
her death with incessant shouts. Zenobia
now was no longer herself: the former great-
ness of her spirit quite sunk within her ; she
owned a master, and pleaded for her life.
‘* Her counsellors (she said) were to be
blamed, and not herself. What could a weak
short-sighted woman do, when beset by art-
ful and ambitious men, who made her sub-
servient to all their schemes? She never had
aimed at empire, had they not placed it be-
fore her eyes in all its allurements. ‘The let-

OF LONGINUS. 25>

ter which affronted Aurelian was not her
own; Longinus wrote it, the insolence was
his.” ‘This was no sooner heard, than Aure-
lian, who was soldier enough to conquer,
but not hero enough to forgive, poured all
_ his vengeance on the head of Longinus. He
was borne away to immediate execution,
amidst the generous condolence of those who
knew his merit, and admired the inward ge-
nerosity of hissoul. He pitied Zenobia, and
comforted his friends. He looked upon death
as a blessing, since it rescued his body from
slavery, and gave his soul the most desirable
freedom. ‘* ‘This world (said he with his ex-
pirig breath) is nothing but a prison;
happy therefore he who gets soonest out of
it, and gains his liberty.”

The writings of Longinus are numerous,
some on philosophical, but the greatest part
on critical subjects. Dr. Pearce has col-
lected the titles of twenty-five Treatises, none
of which, except this on the Sublime, have
escaped from the depredations of time and
barbarians. And even this is rescued as from
a wreck, damaged too much and shattered
by the storm. Yet on this little and im-
perfect piece has the fame of Longinus been
founded and erected. ‘The learned and judi-

; C

26 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

cious have bestowed extraordinary commen-
dation upon it. The Golden ‘Treatise is its
general title. It is one of those valuable rem-
nants of antiquity, of which enough remains:
to engage our admiration, and excite an
earnest regret for every particle of it that
has perished. It resembles those mutilated
statues, which are sometimes digged out of
ruins. Limbs are broken off, which it is not
in the power of any living artist to replace,
because the fine proportion and delicate
finishing of the trunk excludes all hope of
equalling such masterly performances. From
a. constant inspection and close study of
such an antique fragment of Rome, Michael
Angelo learned to execute and to teach the
art of Sculpture; it was therefore called Mi-
chael Angelo’s School. The same use may
be made of this imperfect piece on the Sub-
lime, since it is a noble school for critics,
poets, orators, and historians.

“The Sublime,” says Longinus, “ is an
image reflected from the inward greatness
of the soul.” The remark is refined and just ;
and who more deserving than he of its appli-
cation? Let his sentiments be considered
as reflections from his own mind; let this
piece on the Sublime be regarded as the

OF LONGINUS. Hy |

picture of its author. It is a pity we have not
a larger portrait of him; but as that cannot
be had, we must take up at present with
this incomplete, though beautiful miniature.
The features are graceful, the air is noble,
the colouring lively enough to shew how fine
it was, and how many qualifications are ne-
cessary to form the character ofa critic with
dignity and applause.

Elevation of thought, the greatest qualifi-
cation requisite to an orator or poet, is
equally necessary to a critic, and is the most
shining talent in Longinus. Nature had im-
planted the seeds of it within him, which he
himself improved and nursed up to perfec-
tion, by an intimacy with the greatest and
sublimest writers. Whenever he has Homer
in view, he catches his fire, and increases. the
light and ardour of it. The space between
heaven and earth marks out the extent of the
poet’s genius; but the world itself seems too ~
narrow a confinement for that of the critic,*
And though his thoughts are sometimes
stretched to an immeasurable size, yet they
are always great without swelling, bold with-
out rashness, far beyond what any other could

* See Sect. ix,

c 2

28 : THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

or durst have said, and always proper and
judicious.

As his sentiments are noble and lofty, so
his style is masterly, enlivened by variety,
and flexible with ease. ‘There is no beauty
pointed out by him in any other, which he
does not imitate, and frequently excel, whilst
he is making remarks upon it. How he ad-
mires and improves upon Homer, has been
hinted already. When Plato is his subject,
the words glide along in a smooth, easy, and
peaceable flow. When he speaks of Hype-
rides, he copies at once his engaging manner,
the simplicity, sweetness, and harmony of his
style. With Demosthenes he is vehement,
abrupt, and disorderly regular; he dazzles
with his lightning, and terrifies with his thun-
der. When he parallels the Greek with the
Roman orator, he shews in two periods the
distinguishing excellences of each; the first
is a very hurricane, which bears down all be-
fore it; the last, a conflagration, gentle in its
beginning, gradually dispersed, increasing
and getting to such a head, as to rage beyond
resistance, and devour all things. His sense
is every where the very thing he would ex-
press, and the sound of his words is an echo
to his sense.

OF LONGINUS. 39

His judgment is exact and impartial, both
in what he blames and what he commends.
‘he sentence he pronounces is founded upon
and supported by reasons which are satasfac-
tory and just. His approbation is not at-
tended with fits of stupid admiration, or
gaping, like an idiot, at something surprising
which he cannot comprebend ; nor are his
censures fretful and waspish. He stings, like
the bee, what actually annoys him; but car-
ries honey along with him, which, if it heals
not the wound, yet assuages the smart.

His candour is extensive as his judgment.
‘The penetration of the one obliged him to
reprove what was amiss ; the secret workings
of the other bias him to excuse or extenuate
it in the best manner he is able. Whenever
he lays open the faults of a writer, he forgets
not to mention the qualities he had which
were deserving of praise. Where Homer
sinks into trifles, he cannot help reproving
him; but though Homer nods sometimes, he
is Homer still; excelling all the world when
broad awake, and in his fits of drowsiness,
dreaming like a god.

The good-nature, also, of Longinus must
not pass without notice. He bore an aversion
to the sneers and cavils of those who, un-

30 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

equal to the weighty province of criticism,
abuse it, and become its nuisance. He fre-
quently takes pains to shew how misplaced
their animadversions are, and to defend the
injured from aspersions. There is an in-
stance of this in his vindication of Theopom-
pus from the censure of Cecilius.* He can-
not endure to see what is right in that author
perverted into error; nor where he really
errs, will he suffer him to pass unreproved.f
Yet here his good-nature exerts itself again,
and he proposes divers methods of amending
what is wrong.

The judgment, and candour, and impar-
tiality, with which Longinus declares his sen-
timents of the writings of others, will, I am
persuaded, rise in our esteem, when we reflect
on that exemplary piece of justice he has
done to Moses. The manner of his quoting
that celebrated passaye{ from him, is as ho-
nourable to the critic, as the quotation itself
to the Jewish legislator. Whether he believed
the Mosaic history of the creation, is a point
in which we are not in the least concerned ;
but it was plainly his opinion, that though it
be condescendingly suited to the finite con-

pe Sn and

* Sect. xxxi, + Sect. xlin. t Sect. ix.

OF LONGINUS. e 31

ception of man, yet it is related in a manner »
not inconsistent with the majesty of God.
To contend, as some do, that he never read
Moses, is trifling, or rather litigious. ‘The
Greek translation had been dispersed through-
out the Roman empire, long before the time
in which he lived: and no man of a serious,
much less of a philosophical turn, could re-
ject it as unworthy a perusal. Besides, Zeno-
bia, according to the testimony of Photius,*
was a Jewish convert. And I have some-
where seen it mentioned from Bellarmine,
that she was a Christian; but as I am a
stranger to the reasons on which he founds
the assertion, I shall lay no stress upon it.
But there is strong probability, that Lon-
ginus was not only acquainted with the writ-
ings of the Old Testament, but with those
also of the New, since to a manuscript of
the latter in the Vatican library, there is pre-
fixed a passage from some of this Author’s
writings, which is preserved there as an in-
stance of his judgment. He is drawing up
a list of the greatest orators, and at the close
he says, “And further, Paul of Tarsus, the
chief supporter of an opinion not yet esta-

* Prefixed to Hudson’s Longinus.

33 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

blished.” Fabricius, I own, has been so offi-
ciously kind as to attribute these words to
Christian forgery ;* but for what reasons I
cannot conjecture. If for any of real weight
and importance, certainly he ought not to
have concealed them from the world.

__ If Longinus ever saw any of the writings
of St. Paul, he could not but entertain a
high opinion of him. Such a judge must
needs applaud so masterly an orator. For
where is the writer that can vie with him in
sublime and pathetic eloquence? Demos-
thenes could rouse up the Athenians against
Philip, and Cicero strike shame and confusion
into the breasts of Antony or Catiline ; and
did not the eloquence of St. Paul, though
bound in degrading fetters, make the oppres-
sive, the abandoned Felix tremble, and al-
most persuade Agrippa, in spite of all his
prejudice, to be a Christian? Homer, after
his death, was looked upon as more than hu-
man, and temples were erected to his honour ;
and was not St. Paul admired as a god, even
whilst he was on earth, when the inhabitants
of Lystra would have sacrificed to hin? Let
his writings be examined and judged by the

* Bibliotheca Greca, |. 4. c. 31.

" OF LONGINUS. 338

severest test of the severest critics, and they
cannot be found deficient; nay, they will
appear more abundantly stocked with sub-
lime and pathetic thoughts, with strong and
beautiful figures, with nervous and elegant
expressions, than any other composition in
the world.

But, to leave this digression: it is a remark
_of Sir William Temple, that no pure Greek
-was written after the reign of the Antonini.
But the diction of Longinus, though less
pure than that of Aristotle, is elegant and
nervous, the conciseness or diffuseness of his
periods being always suited to the nature of
his subject. ‘The terms he uses are generally
so strong and expressive, and sometimes so
artfully compounded, that they cannot be
rendered into another language without wide
circumlocution. He has a high and mascu-
line turn of thought, unknown to any other
writer, which enforced him to give all possible
strength and energy to his words, that his
language might be properly adjusted to his
sense, and the sublimity of the latter be uni-
formly supported by the grandeur of the
former.

But further, there appears not in him the
least show or affectation of learning, though

34 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

his stock was wonderfully large, yet without
any prejudice to the brightness of. his fancy.
Some writers are even profuse of their com-
mendations of him in this respect. For how
extensive must his reading have been, to de-
serve those appellations given him by Euna-
pius, that he was a living library, and a walk-
ing museum? Large reading, without a due
balance of judgment, is like a voracious ap-
petite with a bad digestion; it breaks out:
according to the natural complexion of differ-
ent persons, either into learned dulness, ora
brisk but insipid pedantry. In Longinus, it
was so far from palling or extinguishing, that
on the contrary it sharpened and enlivened
his taste. He was not so surly as to reject the
sentiments of others without examination,
but he had the wisdom to stick by his own.
Let us pause a little here, and consider what
a disagreeable and shocking contrast there
is between the genius, the taste, the candour,
the good-nature, the generosity, and modesty
of Longinus, and the heaviness, the dulness,
the snarling and sneering temper of modern
critics, who can feast on inadvertent slips,
and triumph over what they think a blunder.
His very rules are shining examples of what
they inculcate ; his remarks the very excel-

OF LONGINUS. 35

lences he is pointing out. Theirs are often
inversions of what is right, and sinking other
men by clogging them with a weight of their
own lead. He keeps the same majestic
pace, or soars aloft with his authors ; they
are either creeping after, or plunging below
them, fitted more by nature for heroes of a
Dunciad, than for judges of fine sense and
fine writing. ‘The business of a critic is not
only to find fault, nor to be all bitterness and
gall. Yet such behaviour, in those who have
usurped the name, has brought the office into
scandal and contempt. An Essay on Criti-
cism appears but once in an age; and what
a tedious interval is there between Longinus
and Mr. Addison!

Having traced our Author thus far as a cri-
tic, we must view him now in another light,
I mean as a Philosopher. In him these are
not different, but mutually depending and co-
existing parts of the same character. To
judge in a worthy manner of the performances
of men, we must know the dignity of human
nature, the reach of the human understand-
ing, the ends for which we were created, and
the means of their attainment. In these spe-
culations Longinus will make no contempt-

36 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

ible figure, and I hope the view will not ap-
pear superfluous or useless.

Man cannot arrive to a just and proper un-
derstanding of himself, without worthy no-
tions of the Supreme Being. ‘The sad depra-
vations of the pagan world are chiefly to be
attributed to a deficiency in this respect.
Homer has exalted his heroes at the expense
of his deities, and sunken the divine nature
far below the human; and therefore deserves
that censure of blasphemy which Longinus
has passed upon him. Had the poet designed
to have turned the imaginary gods of his ido-
jJatrous countrymen into ridicule, he could
hardly have taken a better method. Yet what
he has said has never been understood in that
light; and though the whole may be allego-
rical, as his commentators would fain per-
suade us, yet this will be no excuse for the
malignancy of its effects on a superstitious
world. ‘The discourses of Socrates, and the
writings of Plato, had in a great measure cor-
rected the notions of inquisitive and thought-
ful men in this particular, and caused the
distinction of religion into vulgar and philoso-
phical. By what Longinus has said of Ho-
mer, 1t is plain to me, that his religion was

OF LONGINUS. 37.

of the latter sort. Though we allow him not
to be a Christian or a Jewish convert, yet he
was no idolater, since without a knowledge
and reverence of the Divine perfections, he
never could have formed his noble ideas of
human nature.

This life he considers as a public theatre,
on which men are to act their parts. A thirst
after glory, and an emulation of whatever is
great and excellent, is implanted in_ their
minds, to quicken théir pursuits after real
grandeur, and to enable them to approach,
as near as their finite abilities will admit, to
Divinity itself. Upon these principles, he
accounts for the vast stretch and penetration
of the human understanding; to these he
ascribes the labours of men of genius ; and by
the predominancy of them in their minds,
ascertains the success of their attempts. In
the same manner he accounts for that turn in
the mind, which biasses us to admire more
what is great and uncommon, than what is
ordinary and familiar, however useful. There
are other masterly refiections of this kind in
the 33d and 34th Sections, which are only to
be excelled by Mr. Addison’s Essay on the
Imagination. Whoever reads this part of
Longinus, and that piece of Mr. Addison’s

38 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

with attention, will form notions of them both
very much to their honour.

Yet telling us we were born to pursue what
is great, without informing us what is so,
would avail but little. Longinus declares for a
close and attentive examination of all things.
Outsides and surfaces may be splendid and
alluring, yet nothing be within deserving our
applause. He that suffers himself to be daz-
zled with a gay and gaudy appearance, will
be betrayed into admiration of what the wise
contemn; his pursuits will be levelled at
wealth, and power, and high rank in life, to
the prejudice of his inward tranquillity, and
perhaps the wreck of his virtue. The pa-
geantry and pomp of life will be regarded by
such a person as true honour and glory ; and
he will neglect the nobler acquisitions, which
are more suited to the dignity of his nature,
which alone can give merit to ambition, and
centre in solid and substantial grandeur.

The mind is the source and standard of
whatever can be considered as great and illus-
trious in any light. From this our actions
and our words must flow, and by this must
they be weighed. We must think well, be-
fore we can act or speak as we ought. And
itis the inward vigour of the soul, though

OF LONGINUS. 39

variously exerted, which forms the patriot,
the philosopher, the orator, or the poet: this
was the rise of an Alexander, a Socrates, a
Demosthenes, and a Homer. Yet this in-
ward vigour is chiefly owing to the bounty of
nature, is cherished and improved by educa-
tion, but cannot reach maturity without other
concurrent causes, such as public liberty,
and the strictest practice of virtue.

That the seeds of a great genius in any
kind must be implanted within, and cherished
and improved by education, are points in
which the whole world agrees. But the im-
portance of liberty in bringing it to perfec-
tion, may perhaps be more liable to debate.
Longinus is clear on the affirmative side. He
speaks feelingly, but with caution about it,
because tyranny and oppression were tri-
umphant at the time he wrote.

He avers, with a spirit of generous indig-
nation, that slavery is the confinement of the
soul, and a public dungeon.* On this he
charges the suppression of genius and decay
of the sublime. ‘The condition of man is de-
plorable, when‘he dares not exert his abili-
ties, and runs into imminent danger by say-

* Sect. xliv,

40 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

ing or doing what heought. Tyranny, erect-
ed on the ruins of liberty, lays an immediate
restraint on the minds of vassals, so that the
inborn fire of genius is quickly damped, and
suffers at last a total extinction. This must
always be a necessary consequence, when
what ought to be the reward of an honour-
able ambition becomes the prey of knaves
and flatterers. But the infection gradually
spreads, and fear and avarice will bend those
to it, whom nature formed for higher employ-
ments, and sink lofty orators into pompous
flatterers. The truth of this remark will
easily appear, if we compare Cicero speak-
ing to Catiline, to the same Cicero pleading
before Ceesar for Marcellus. ‘That spirit of
adulation, which prevailed so much in Eng-
land about a century ago, lowered one of the
greatest geniuses that ever lived, and turned
even the Lord Bacon into a sycophant. And
this will be the case wherever power en-
croaches 9n the rights of mankind: a servile
fear will clog and fetter every rising genius,
will strike such an awe upon it in its tender
and infant state, as will stick. for ever after,
and check its generous sallies. No one will
write or speak well in such a situation, unless
on subjects of mere amusement, and which

OF LONGINUS. 41

cannot, by any indirect tendency, affect his
masters. For how shall the vassal dare to
talk sublimely on any point wherein his lord
acts meanly ? ;

But further, as despotic and unbridled
power is generally obtained, so it is as often
supported,by unjustifiable methods. The
splendid and ostentatious pageantry of those
at the helm, gives rise to luxury and profuse-
ness among the subjects. ‘These are the fatal
sources of dissolute manners, of degenerate
sentiments, of infamy and want. As plea-
sure is supplied by money, no method, how-
ever mean, is omitted to procure the latter,
because it leads to the enjoyment of the for-
mer. Men become corrupt and abject, their
minds are enervated and insensible to shame.
“The faculties of the soul (in the words of
Longinus) * will then grow stupid, their spirit
will be lost, and good sense and genius must
lay in ruins, when the care and study of man
is engaged about the mortal, the worthless
part of himself, and he has ceased to cultivate
virtue, and polish his nobler part, the soul.”

The scope of our Author’s reflections in the
latter part of the Section is this ; that genius

* Sect. xliv.
1D

AZ THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

can never exert itself, or rise to sublimity,
where virtue is neglected, and the morals are
depraved. Cicero was of the same opinion
before him, and Quinctilian has a whole
chapter to prove that the great orator must
be a good man. Men of the finest genius,
_ who have hitherto appeared in the world,
have been for the most part not very de-
fective in their morals, and less in their prin-
ciples. I am sensible there are exceptions
to this observation, but little to the credit of
the persons, since their works become the se-
verest satires on themselves, and the manifest
opposition between their thought and prac-
tice detracts its weight from the one, and
marks out the other for public abhorrence.
An inward grandeur of soul is the common
centre, from whence every ray of sublimity,
either in thought, or action, or discourse, is
darted out. For all minds are no more of the
same complexion, than all bodies of the same
texture. In the latter case; our eyes would
meet only with the same uniformity of colour
in every object: in the former, we should be
all orators or poets, all philosophers, or all
blockheads.: This would break in upon that
beautiful and useful variety, with which the
Author of nature has adorned the rational as

OF LONGINUS. 43

well as the material creation. There is in
every mind a tendency, though perhaps dif-
ferently inclined, to what is great and excel-
lent. Happy they, who know their own pe-
culiar bent, who have been blessed with op-
portunities of giving it the proper culture
and polish, and are not cramped or restrained
in the liberty of shewing and declaring it to
others! There are many fortunate concur-
rences, without which we cannot attain to any
quickness of taste or relish for the Sublime.
I hope what has been said will not be
thought an improper introduction to the fol-
lowing Treatise, in which (unless I am de-
ceived) there is a just foundation for every re-
mark that has been made. The Author ap-
pears sublime in every view, not only in
what he has written, but in the manner in
which he acted, and the bravery with which
he died; by all acknowledged the Prince of
Critics, and by no worse judge than Boileau
esteemed a philosopher, worthy to be ranked
with Socrates and Cato.

pd 2

LONGINUS ow tae SUBLIME.

SECTION I.

You remember, my dear *TERENTIANUS,
that when we read over together * Cecilius’s
Treatise on the Sublime, we thought it too
mean for a subject of that nature, that it is
entirely defective in its principal branches,
and that consequently its advantage (which
ought to be the principal aim of every writer)

1 Who this Terentianus, or Posthumius Terentianus, was,
to whom the Author addresses this Treatise, is not possible to
be discovered, nor is it of any great importance. But it ap-
pears, from some passages in the sequel of this work, that he
was a young Roman, a person of a bright genius, an elegant
taste, and a particular friend to Longinus. What he says of
him, I am confident, was spoken with sincerity more than
complaisance, since Longinus must have disdained to flatter,
like a modern dedicator,

* Cecilius was a Sicilian rhetorician. He lived under
Augustus, and was cotemporary with Dionysius of Halicar-
nassus, with whom he contracted a very close friendship. He
is thought to have been the first who wrote on the Sublime.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 45

would prove very small to the readers. Be-
sides, though in every treatise upon any sci-
ence two points are indispensably required ;
the first, that the science, which is the subject
of it, be fully explained ; the second (I mean
in order of writing, since in excellence it is
far the superior), that plain directions be
given, how and by what method such science
may be attained ; yet Cecilius, who brings a
thousand instances to shew what the Sublime
is, as if his readers were wholly ignorant of
the matter, has omitted, as altogether unne-
cessary, the method which, judiciously ob-.~~
served, might enable us to raise our natural
genius to any height of thisSusiime. But,
perhaps, this writer is not so much to be
blamed for his omissions, as commended for
his good designs and earnest endeavours.
You indeed have laid your commands upon
me, to give you my thoughts on this Sub-
lime; let us then, in obedience to those com-
mands, consider whether any thing can be
drawn from my private studies, for the ser-
vice of * those who write for the world, or
speak in public.

3 “Those who write for the world, or speak in public,”] I
take all this to be implied in the original word rodcrixorc.

46 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

- ButI request you, my dear friend, to give
me your opinion on whatever I advance, with
that exactness, which is due to truth, and
that sincerity which is natural to yourself.
For well did the * sage answer the question,
* In what do we most resemble the gods?”
when he replied, “In doing good and speak-
ing truth.” But since I write, my dear
friend, to you, who are versed in every
branch of polite learning, there will be little
occasion to use many previous words in prov-
ing, that the Sublime is a certain eminence
or perfection of language, and that the great-
est writers, both in verse and prose, have by
this alone obtained the prize of glory, and
filled all time with their renown. For the
Sublime not only persuades, but even throws
an audience into transport. The Marvellous
always works with more surprising force than
that which barely persuades or delights. In
most cases, it 1s wholly in’ our own power
either to resist.or yield to persuasion. But
the Sublime, endued with strength irresisti-
ble, strikes home, and triumphs over every
hearer. Dexterity of invention, and good
order and economy in composition, are not to

* Pythagoras.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 47

be discerned from one or two passages, nor
scarcely sometimes from the whole texture of
a discourse ; but 4 the Sublime, when season-
ably addressed, with the rapid force of light-
_ning has borne down all before it, and shewn
at one stroke the compacted might of genius.
But these, and truths like these, so well
known and familiar to himself, I am confi-
dent my dear TeErRENTIANUs can undeniably
prove by his own practice.

+ « The Sublime, when seasonably addressed,” &c.] This
sentence is inimitably fine in the original. Dr, Pearce has an
ingenious observation upon it. ‘“‘ It is not easy (says he) to
determine, whether the precepts of Longinus, or his example,
be most to be observed and followed in the course of this
work, since his style is possessed of all the sublimity of his
subject. Accordingly, in this passage, to express the power
of the Sublime, he has made use of his words, with all the art
and propriety imaginable. Another writer would have said
dtapoper and evdexyurat, but this had been too dull and languid.
Our Author uses the preterperfect tense, the better to express
the power and rapidity with which sublimity of discourse
strikes the minds of its hearers. It is like lightning (says our
Author) because you can no more look upon this, when pre-
sent, than you can upon the flash of that. Besides, the struc-
ture of the words in the close of the sentence is admirable.
They run along, and are hurried in the celerity of short
vowels. They represent to the life the rapid motion either of
lightning, or the Sublime.”

48 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

SECTION II.

Burt we ought not to advance, before we
clear the point, whether or no there be any
art in the Sublime.’ For some are entirely
of opinion, that they are guilty of a great
mistake, who would reduce it to the rules of -
art. ‘* The Sublime (say they) is born within
us, and is not to be learned by precept. ‘The
only art to reach it, is, to have the power
from nature. And (as they reason) those ef-
fects, which should be purely natural, are

1 In all the editions is added » Eabovc, or the profound: a
perplexing expression, and which perhaps gave rise to a trea-
tise on the Bathos. It was purposely omitted in the transla-
tion, for this plain substantial reason, because I could not
make sense of it. I have since been favoured with a sight of
the learned Dr. Tonstal’s conjectural emendations on this
Author, and here for Bafove he readeth zafove. ‘The minute
alteration of a single letter enlightens and clears the whole
passage: the context, the whole tenor of the piece, justifies
the emendation. I beg leave therefore to give the following
new version of the passage :— But we ought not to advance,
before we clear the point, whether or no there be any art in
the Sublime or the Pathetic. For some are entirely of opinion,
that they are guilty of a great mistake, who would reduce them
to the rules of art: These high attainments (say they) are
born within us, and are not to be learned by precept: the only
art to reach them, is to have the power from nature.”

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 49

dispirited and weakened by the dry impover-
ishing rules of art.”

But I maintain, that the contrary might
easily appear, would they only reflect that—
*though nature for the most part challenges
a sovereign and uncontrollable power in the
Pathetic and Sublime, yet she is not altoge-

2 These observations of Longinus, and the following lines
of Mr. Pope, area very proper illustration for one another :

First follow nature, and your judgment frame

By her just standard, which is still the same:
Unerring nature, still divinely bright,

One clear, unchang’d, and universal light,

Life, force, and beauty must to all impart,

At once the source, and end, and test of art.

Art from that fund each just supply provides,
Works without show, and without pomp presides :
In some fair body thus the secret soul

With spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole ;
Each motion guides, and every nerve sustains,
Itself unseen, but in th’ effect remains.

There are, whom Heav’n has bless’d with store of wit,
Yet want as much again to manage it ;

For wit and judgment ever are at strife,

Though meant each other’s aid, like man and wife.
Tis more to guide, than spur the muse’s steed,
Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed ;

The winged courser, like a generous horse,

Shews most true mettle when you check his course.

Essay on Criticism,

50 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

ther lawless, but delights in a proper regula-
_ tion. That again—though she is the founda-
_ tion, and even the source of all degrees of the
Sublime, yet that method is able to point out
in the clearest manner the peculiar tendencies
of each, and to mark the proper seasons in
which they ought to be enforced and applied.
And further—that flights of grandeur are
then in the utmost danger, when left at ran-
dom to themselves, having no ballast proper-
ly to poise, no helm to guide their course,
but cumbered with their own weight, and
bold without discretion. Genius may some-
. times want the spur, but it stands as fre-
quently in need of the curb.

Demosthenes somewhere judiciously ob-
serves, * That in common life success is the
greatest good ; that the next, and no less im-
portant, is conduct, without which the other
must be unavoidably of short continuance.”
Now the same may be asserted of Composi-
tion, where nature will supply the place of
success, and art the place of conduct.

But further, there is one thing which de-
serves particular attention. For though it
must be owned, that there is a force in elo-
quence, which depends not upon, nor can be
learned by, rule, yet even this could not be

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 51

known without that light which we receive
from art. If, therefore, as I said before, he
who condemns such works as this in which I
am now engaged, would attend to these re-
flections, I have very good reason to believe
he would no longer think any undertaking of
this nature superfluous or useless.

SECTION III. :

* &§ * *&©§ € *® © i 21

Let them the chimney’s flashing flames repel.
Could but these eyes one lurking wretch arrest,
I’d whirl aloft one streaming curl of flame,
-And into embers turn his crackling dome.

But now a generous song I have not sounded.

Streaming curls of flame, spewing against
heaven, and * making Boreas a piper, with

1 Here is a great defect ; but it is evident that the Author is’
treating of those imperfections which are opposite to the true
Sublime, and among those, of extravagant swelling or bom-
bast, an example of which he produces from some old tragic
poet, none of whose lines, except these here quoted, and some
expressions below, remain at present.

2 Making Boreas a piper.” ] Shakespeare has fallen into
the same kind of bombast :

; the southern wind

Doth play the trumpet to his purposes.
: First Part of Henry IV.

52 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

such-like expressions, are not tragical, but
super-tragical. For those forced and unna-
tural images corrupt and debase the style,
and cannot possibly adorn or-raise it ; and
whenever carefully examined in the light,
their show of being terrible gradually disap-
pears, and they become contemptible and ri-
diculous. ‘Tragedy will indeed by its nature
admit of some pompous and magnificent
swellings, yet even in tragedy it is an unpar-
donable offence to soar too high; much less
allowable must it therefore be in prose-writ-
ing, or those works which are founded in
truth. Upon this account some expressions
of ° Gorgias the Leontine are highly ridiculed,

3 Gorgias the Leontine, or of Leontium, was a Sicilian
rhetorician, and father of the Sophists, He was in such uni-
versal esteem throughout Greece, that a statue was erected to
his honour in the temple of Apollo at Delphos, of solid gold,
though the custom had been only to gild them. His styling
Xerxes the Persian Jupiter, it is thought, may be defended
from the custom of the Persians to salute their monarch by
that high title. Calling vultures living sepulchres, has been
more severely censured by Hermogenes than Longinus. The
authors of such quaint expressions (as he says) deserve them-
selves to be buried in such tombs. It is certain that writers
of great reputation have used allusions of the same nature,
Dr. Pearce has produced instances from Ovid, and even from
Cicero; and observed further, that Gregory Nazianzen has

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 53.

who styles Xerxes the Persian Jupiter, and
calls vultures diving sepulchres. Some expres-
sions of *Callisthenes deserve the same treat-
ment, for they shine not like stars, but glare
like meteors. And?’ Clitarchus comes under
this censure still more, who blusters indeed,
and blows, as Sophocles expresses it,

Loud sounding blasts not sweetened by the stop.

° Amphicrates, 7 Hegesias,. and ® Matris,

styled those wild beasts that devour men, running sepulchres.
However, at best they are but conceits, with which little wits
in all ages will be delighted, the great may accidentally slip
into, and such as men of true judgment may overlook, but will
hardly commend.

* Callisthenes succeeded Aristotle in the tuition of Alexan-
der the Great, and wrote a history of the affairs of Greece.

5 Clitarchus wrote an account of the exploits of Alexander
the Great, having attended him in his expeditions. Deme-
trius Phalereus, in his treatise on Elocution, has censured his
swelling description of a wasp. “It feeds (says he) upon
the mountains, and flies into hollow oaks.” It seems as if he
was speaking of a wild bull, or the boar of Erymanthus, and
not of such a pitiful creature asa wasp. And for this reason,
says Demetrius, the description is cold and disagreeable.

6 Amphicrates was an Athenian orator. Being banished
to Seleucia, and requested to set up a school there, he replied,
with arrogance and disdain, that “ The dish was not large
enough for dolphins.” Dr. Pearce.

7 Hegesias was a Magnesian. Cicero, in his Orator, c.
226, says humorously of him, “ He is faulty no less. in his

54 | LONGINUS ON: THE SUBLIME.

may all be taxed with the same imperfections.
For often, when, in their own opinion, they
are all Divine, what they imagine to be god-
like spirit, proves empty simple froth .°
Bombast however is amongst those faults
which are most difficult to be avoided. All

thoughts than his expressions, so that no one who has any
knowledge of him need ever be ata loss for a man to call zm-
pertinent.” One of his frigid expressions is still remaining.
Alexander was born the same night that the temple of Diana
at Ephesus, the finest edifice in the world, was by a terrible
fire reduced to ashes. Hegesias, in a panegyrical declamation
on Alexander the Great, attempted thus to turn that accident
to his honour: ‘* No wonder (said he) that Diana’s temple
was consumed by so terrible a conflagration: the goddess was
so taken up in assisting at Olinthia’s delivery of Alexander,
that she had no leisure to extinguish the flames which were
destroying her temple.” ‘ The coldness of this expression
(says Plutarch in Alex.) is so excessively great, that it seems
sufficient of itself to have extinguished the fire of the temple.”

I wonder Plutarch, who has given so little quarter to He-
gesias, has himself escaped censure, till Dr. Pearce took cog-
nizance of him. “ Dulness (says he) is sometimes infectious ;
for while Plutarch is censuring Hegesias, he falls into his very
character.”

8 Who Matris was [ cannot find, but commentators observe
from Athenzus, that he wrote in prose an Encomium upon
Hercules.

9Vid. Cic. ]. 4. Rhetoricorum, p. 97. ed. Delph. vol. 1.
What is said there about the Sufflata constructio verborum,
agrees very exactly with Longinus’s sense of the bombast.

LONGINUS ON. THE SUBLIME. 55.

men are naturally biassed to aim at grandeur:
Hence it is, that by shunning with the ut-
most diligence the censure of impotence and
phlegm, they are hurried into the contrary
extreme. They are mindful of themaxim, that

In great attempts ’tis glorious ev’n to fall.

But tumours in writing, as well as in the hu-
man body, are certain disorders. Empty and
veiled over with superficial bigness, they only
delude, and work effects contrary to those
for which they were designed. ‘* Nothing,”
according to the old saying, “ is drier than a
person distempered with a dropsy.”

Now the only failure in this swoln and
puffed-up style is, that it endeavours to go
beyond the true Sublime, whereas Puerilities
are directly opposite to it. They are low and
grovelling, meanly and faintly expressed, and
in a word are the most ungenerous and
unpardonable errors that an author can be
guilty of.

But what do we mean by a Puerility?
Why, it is certainly no more than a school-
boy’s thought, which, by too eager a pursuit
of elegance, becomes dry and insipid. And
those persons commonly fail in this particular,

i)

56 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

who, by an ill-managed zeal for a neat, cor-
rect, and, above all, a sweet style, are hurried
into low turns of expression, into a heavy and
nauseous affectation.

To these may be added a third sort of im-
perfection in the Pathetic, which * Turopo-
rus has named the Parenthyrse, or an ill-
timed emotion. Itis an unnecessary attempt
to work upon the passions, where there is no
need of a Pathos; or some excess, where mo-
deration is requisite. For several authors, of
no sober understandings, are excessively fond
of passionate expressions, which bear no rela-
tion at all to their subject, but are whims of
their own, or borrowed from the schools. The >
consequence is, they meet with nothing but
contempt and derision from their unaffected
audience. And itis what they deserve, since
they force themselves into transport and emo-
tion, whilst their audience is calm, sedate,
and unmoved. But I must reserve the Pa-
thetic for another place.

10 Theodorus is thought to have been born at Gadara, and
to have taught at Rhodes. Tiberius Cesar, according to
Quinctilian, is reported to have heard him with application,
during his retirement in that island.— Langbaine.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 97

: SECTION IV,
?TrmMmus abounds very much in the Fri-
gid, the other vice of which I am speaking ;

a writer, it is true, sufficiently skilled in ~

other points, and who sometimes reaches the
genuine Sublime. He was indeed a person
of a ready invention, polite learning, and a
great fertility and strength of thought. But
these qualifications are, in a great measure,
clouded by the propensity he has to blazon
the imperfections of others, and a wilful blind-
ness in regard ‘to his own ; ‘though a fond de-

sire of new thoughts and uncommon ‘turns -

has often plunged him into shameful Puerili-
ties. The truth of these -assertions I shall
confirm by one or two instances alone, since
Cecilius has already given us a larger number.

When he commends Alexander. the ‘Great,
he tells us, “that he conquered all Asia in

1 'Timeus was a Sicilian historian. Cicero has sketched a
short character of him in his Orator, /. 2. c. 14. which agrees
very well with the:favourable part of that which.is drawn jin
this Section. But Longinus; takes notice further of his. seyerity
to others, which even drew, upon him the surname of Epi-
timeus, from the Greek emripgy, because he was continually

=

chiding and finding fault.
F

58 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

fewer years than Isocrates was composing his
Panegyric.” A wonderful parallel indeed, be-
tween the conqueror of the world and a profes-
sor of rhetoric! By your method of compu-
tation, Timzeus, the Lacedemonians fall vast-
ly short of Isocrates, in expedition ; for they
spent thirty years in the siege of Messene, he
only ten in writing that Panegyric!

But how does he inveigh against those
Athenians who were made prisoners after the
defeat in Sicily! “ Guilty (says he) of sacri-
lege against Hermes, and having defaced his
images, they were now severely punished ;
and what is somewhat extraordinary, by Her-
mocrates the son of Hermon, who was pater-
nally descended from the injured deity.” Re-
ally, my TERENTIANUS, J am surprised that
he has not passed the same censure on Diony-
sius the tyrant ; “‘ who, for his heinous impiety
towards Jupiter (or Dia) and Hercuies (He-
raclea), was dethroned by Dion and Hera-
clides.” |

Why should I dwell any longer upon Ti-
meeus, when even the very heroes of good
writing, Xenophon and Plato, though edu-
cated in the school of Socrates, sometimes
forget themselves, and transgress through an
affectation of such pretty flourishes? The

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 59

tormer, in his Polity of the Lacedemonians,
speaks thus: “ They observe an uninterrupt-
ed silence, and keep their eyes as fixed and
unmoved, as if they were so many statues of
stone or brass. You might with reason think
them more modest * than the * virgins in their
eyes.” Amphicrates might, perhaps, be al-
lowed to use the term of modest virgins for
the pupils of the eye; but what an indecency
is it in the great Xenophon? And what a

2 «¢ 'Than the virgins in their eyes.”] Xenophon, in this
passage, is shewing the care which that excellent lawgiver
Lycurgus took to accustom the Spartan youth to a grave and
modest behaviour. He enjoined them, whenever they appeared
in public, “ to cover their arms with their gown, to walk
silently, to keep their eyes from wandering, by looking always
directly before them.” Hence it was, that they differed from
statues only in their motion. But undoubtedly that turn upon
the word kopy, here blamed by Longinus, would be a great
blemish to this fine piece, if it were justly chargeable on the
author, But Longinus must needs have made use of a very
incorrect copy, which, by an unpardonable blunder, had ev
rote ofBarpore instead of ev rote Sadaporc, as it stands now in
the best editions, particularly that at Paris by H. Stephens.
This quite removes the cold and insipid turn, and restores a
sense which is worthy of Xenophon: ‘ You would think
them more modest in their whole behaviour, than virgins in
the bridal bed.”

> The word copy, signifying both a virgin and the pupil of
the eye, has given occasion for these cold insipid turns.

60 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

strange persuasion, that the pupils of the eye
should be in general the seats. of modesty,
when impudence is no where more visible
than in the eyes of some? Homer, for in-
stance, calls a person, »

Drunkard ! thou dog in eye! *

Timeeus, as if he had found a treasure, could
not pass by this insipid turn of Xenophon
without imitation. Accordingly he speaks
thus of Agathocles: “He ravished his own
cousin, though married to another person, and
on *the very day when she was first seen by
her husband without a veil ;a crime, of which
none but he who had prostitutes, not virgins,
in his eyes, could be guilty.” Neither is the
divine Plato to be acquitted of this failure,
when he says, for instance ; “ After they are

* Thad. 1. 1.-v.225.

‘4° The very day when—a veil.””] All this is implied in the
word avaxadurrnowy. It was the custom throughout Greece,
and the Grecian colonies, for the unmarried women never to —
appear In public, or to converse with men, without a veil.
The second or third day after marriage, it was usual for the
bridegroom to make presents to his bride, which were called
avaxahurrnp.a, for then she immediately unveiled, and liberty
was given him to converse freely with her ever after.

See Potter’s Antiquities, v. u. p. 294-5.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 6L

written, they deposit in the: temples these cy-
press memorials.”* And in another passage ;
“* As to the walls, Megillus, I join in the opi-.
nion of Sparta, to let them sleep supine on the
earth, and not to rouse them up.” Neither
does an expression of Herodotus fall short of
it,” when he calls beautiful women, * the pains
of the eye.”t Though this indeed may admit
of some excuse, since in his history it is spoken
by drunken barbarians. But neither in such
a case, is it prudent to hazard the censure of
posterity, rather than pass over a pretty con-
Celt.

SECTION V.

Aut these and such-like indecencies in
composition take their rise from the same ori-

* Plato 5. Legum. _ + Plato 6. Legum.

3 « When he calls—of the eye.” ] The critics are strangely
divided about the justice of this remark. Authorities are urged,
and parallel expressions quoted on both sides. Longinus
blames it, but afterwards candidly alleges the only plea
which can be urged in its favour, that it was said by drunken
barbarians. And who, but such sots, would have given the
most delightful objects in nature so rude and uncivil an appel-
lation? I appeal to the ladies for the propriety of this ob-
servation.

t Herod. Terpsichore, c. 18.

62 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

ginal; I mean that eager pursuit of uncom-
mon turns of thought, which almost infatu-
ates the writers of the present age. For our
excellences and defects flow almost from the
same common source. So that those correct
and elegant, those pompous and beautiful ex-
pressions, of which good writing chiefly con-
- sists, are frequently so distorted as to become
the unlucky causes and foundations of oppo-
site blemishes. This is manifest in hyperboles
and plurals; but the danger attending an in-
judicious use of these figures, I shall discover
in the sequel of this work. At present it 1s
incumbent upon me to inquire, by what
means we may be enabled to avoid those
vices, which border so near upon, and are so
easily blended with, the true Sublime.

SECTION VI.

Tis indeed may be easily learned, if we
can gain a thorough insight and penetration
into the nature of the true Sublime, which, to
speak truly, is by no means an easy, or a
ready acquisition. 'To pass a right judgment
upon composition is generally the effect of a

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 63

long experience, and the last improvement of
study and observation. But however, to speak
in the way of encouragement, a more expe-
ditious method to form our taste, may per-
haps, by the assistance of Rules, be success-
fully attempted.

SECTION VII.

You cannot be ignorant, my dearest friend,
that in common life there is nothing great, a
contempt of which shews a greatness of soul.
So riches, honours, titles, crowns, and what-
ever is veiled over with a theatrical splendour,
and a gaudy outside, can never be regarded
as intrinsically good, in the opinion of a wise
man, since by despising such things no little
glory is acquired. For the persons who have
ability sufficient to acquire, but through an
inward generosity scorn such acquisitions, are
more admired than those who actually pos-
sess them.

In the same manner we must judge of what-
ever looks great both in poetry and prose.
Wemust carefully examine whether it be not
only appearance. We must divest it of all

*
64 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

superficial pomp and garnish. If it cannot
stand this trial, without doubt itis only swell-
ed and puffed up, and it will be more for our
honour to contemn than to admire it. * For
the mind is naturally elevated by the true
Sublime, and so sensibly affected with its live-
ly strokes, that it swells in transport and an
inward pride, as if what was only heard had
been the product of its own invention.

He therefore who has a competent share of
natural and acquired taste, may easily dis-
cover the value of any performance from a
bare recital of it. If he finds that it trans-
ports not his soul, nor exalts his thoughts ;
that it calls not up into his mind ideas more
enlarged than what the mere sounds of the
words convey, but on attentive examination
its dignity lessens and declines ; he may con-
clude, that whatever pierces no deeper than
the ears, can never be the true Sublime. ?That

1 It isremarked in the notes to Boileau’s translation, that
the great Prince of Condé, upon hearing this passage, cried
out, Voild le Sublime! voila son véritable caractere !

2“ This is a very fine description of the Sublime, and
finer still, becausé itis very sublime itself; But it is only a
description ; and it does not appear that Longinus intended,
any where in this Treatise, to give an exact definition of it.
The reason is, because he wrote after Cecilius, who (as he

a
LONGINUS ON THE suBLIME. 65

on the contrary is grand and lofty, which the
more we consider, the greater ideas we con-
ceive of it; whose force we cannot possibly
withstand ; which immediately sinks deep,
and niakes such impressions on the mind as

tells us) had employed all his book, in defining and shewing
what the Sublinie'is. But smce this book of Cecilius is lost,
I believe it will not be amiss to venture here a definition of it
my own way, which may give at least an. imperfect idea of it.
This is the manner in which I think it may be defined. The
Sublime is a certain force in discourse, proper to elevate and
transport the soul; and which proceeds either from grandeur
of thought and nobleness of sentiment, or from magnificence
of words, or an harmonious, lively, aud animated turn of ex-
pression; that is to say, from any one of these particulars re-
garded separately, or, what makes the perfect Sublime, from
these three particulars joined together.”

‘Thus far are Boileau’s own words in his twelfth reflection on
Longmus, where, to illustrate the preceding definition, he sub-
joins an example from Racine’s Athalie, or Abner, of these
three particular qualifications of sublimity joined together. One
of the .principal officers of the court of Judah represents to
Jehoiada, the high-priest, the excessive rage of Athaliah against
hint and all the Levites; adding, that, in his opinion, the
haughty Prmcess would in a short time come and attack God
even in his sanctuary. To this the high-priest, not in the least
moved, answers:

Celui qui met un frein a la fureur des flots,

Sait aussi des mechans arreter les complots,

Soumis avec respect a sa volonte sainte,

Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n’ai point d’autre crainte.

66 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

cannot be easily worn out or effaced. In a
word, you may pronounce that sublime, beau-
tiful, and genuine, which always pleases, and
takes equally with all sorts of men. For when
persons of different humours, ages, profes-
_ sions, and inclinations, agree in the samé joint
approbation of any performance; then this
union of assent, this combination of so many
different judgments, stamps a high and in-
disputable value on that performance, which
meets with such general applause.

SECTION VIII.

Tnere are, if I may so express it, five very
copious sources of the Sublime, if we presup-
pose an ability of speaking well, as a com-
mon foundation for these five sorts, and in-
deed without it, any thing besides will avail
but little.

I. The first and most excellent of these is
a boldness and grandeur in the Thoughts, as
I have shewn in my Essay on Xenophon.

II. The second is called the Pathetic, or
the power of raising the passions to a violent
and even enthusiastic degree; and these two
being genuine constituents of the Sublime,

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 67

are the gifts of nature, whereas the other
sorts depend in some measure upon art.

III. The third consists in a skilful applica-
tion of Figures, which are twofold, of senti-
ment and language.

IV. The fourth is a noble and graceful
manner of Expression, which is not only to
choose out significant and elegant words, but
also to adorn and embellish the style, by the
assistance of ‘Tropes.

V. The fifth source of the Sublime, which
completes all the preceding, is the Structure
or composition of all the periods, in all possi-
ble dignity and grandeur.

I proceed next to consider each of these
sources apart; but must first observe, that,
of the five, Cecilius has wholly omitted the
Pathetic. Now, if he looked upon the Grand
and Pathetic as including one another, and
in effect the same, he was under a mistake.
For * some passions are vastly distant from

1 Some passions are vastly distant,” &e.] The pathe-
tic without grandeur is preferable to that which is great with-
_ out passion. Whenever both unite, the passage will be ex-
cellent; and there is more of this in the book of Job, than in
any other composition in the world. Longinus has here quoted
a fine instance of the latter from Homer, but has produced
none of the former, or the pathetic without grandeur.

68 LONGINUS ON TILE SUBLIME.

grandeur, and are in themselves of a low de-
gree ; as lamentation, sorrow, fear; and om

.

When a writer applies to the more tender passions of love
and pity, when a speaker endeavours to engage our affections,
or gain our esteem, he may succeed well, though there be
nothing grand in what he says. Nay, grandeur would some-
times be unseasonable in such cases, as it strikes always at the
imagination.

‘There is a deal of this sort of Pathetic in the words of our
Saviour to the poor Jews, who were imposed upon and de-
luded into fatal errors by the Scribes and Pharisees, who had
long been guilty of the heaviest oppression on the minds of
the people : (Matt. xi, 28—30.) “‘ Come unto me, all ye that
Iabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly
m heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

So again in Matt. xxiii, 37. after taking notice of the cruel-
ties, inhumanities, and murders, which the Jewish nation had
been guilty of towards those who had exhorted them to repent-
ance, or would have recalled them from their blindness and
superstition to the practice of real religion and virtue, he ona
sudden breaks off with,

“QO Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

_ The expression here is vulgar and common, the allusion

to the hen taken from an object which is daily before our eyes,
‘arid yet there is as much tenderness and significance in it. as
can any where be found in the same compass.

1 beg leave to observe farther, that there is a continued strain

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 69

the contrary,? there are many things grand
and lofty without any passion; as, among a
thousand instances, we may see, from what
‘the poet has said, with so much boldness, of
the Aloides :*

* to raise

Huge Ossa on Olympus’ top they strove,

And place on Ossa Pelion with its grove ;

That heaven itself, thus climb’d, might be assail’d.

But the boldness of what he afterwards
adds is yet greater :

Nor would success their bold attempts have fail’d, &c.

of this sort of Pathetic in St. Paul’s farewell speech to the
Ephesian elders in Acts xx. What an effect it had upon his
audience is plain from ver. 36—38. It is scarcely possible to
read it seriously without tears.

? The first book of Paradise Lost is a continued instance of
Sublimity without Passion. The descriptions of Satan and
the other fallen angels are very grand, but terrible. They do
not so much exalt as terrify the imagination. See Mr. Ad-
dison’s observations, Spectator, No. 339.

3“ ‘The poet.”] Longinus, as well as many other writers,
frequently styles Homer in an eminent manner, the poet, as
if none but he had deserved that title.

* Odyss. A. v. 314.

* Milton has equalled, if not excelled, these bold lines of
Homer in his fight of angels. See Mr. Addison’s fine ob-
_ servations upon it, Spectator, No. 333.

78 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME,

Among the orators, all panegyrics, and ora-
tions composed for pomp and show, may be
grand throughout, but yet are for the most
part void of passion. So that those orators,
who excel in the Pathetic, scarcely ever suc-
ceed as panegyrists ; and those whose talents
lie chiefly at Panegyric, are very seldom able
to affect the passions. But, on the other
hand, if Cecilius was of opinion, that the Pa-
thetic did not contribute to the Sublime, and
on that account judged it not worth his men-
tion, he is guilty of an unpardonable error.
For I confidently aver, that nothing so much
raises discourse, as a fine pathos seasonably
applied. It animates a whole performance
with uncommon life and spirit, and gives mere
words the force (as it were) of inspiration.

PA
SECTION IX.

Bur though the first and most important
of these divisions, I mean, Elevation of
Thought, be rather a natural than an acquired
qualification, yet we ought to spare no pains

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. TY

to educate our souls to grandeur, and impreg-
nate them with generous and enlarged ideas.
« But how,” it will be asked, ‘* can this be
done?” Why, Ihave hinted in another place,
that the Sublime is an image reflected from
the inward greatness of the soul. Hence it
comes to pass, that a naked thought without
words challenges admiration, and strikes by
its grandeur. ‘Such is * the silence of Ajax

1« The silence of Ajax,” &c.] Dido in Virgil behaves
with the same greatness and majesty as Homer’s Ajax. He
disdains the conversation of the man, who, to his thinking, had
injuriously defrauded him of the arms of Achilles; and she
scorns to hold conference with him, who, in her own opinion,
had basely forsaken her; and, by her silent retreat, shews her
resentment, and reprimands Auneas more than she could have
done in a thousand words.

Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat,

Nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur,

Quam si dura silex, aut stet Marpesia cautes.
Tandem corripuit sese, atque inimica refugit

Ain. vi. 0. 469.

Disdainfully she look’d ; then turning round,

In nemus umbriferum.

She fix’d her eyes unmov’d upon the ground,

And what he looks and swears, regards no more

Than the deaf rocks, when the loud billows roar,

But whirl’d away to shun his hateful sight,

Hid in the forest and the shades of night. Dryden.

The Pathetic, as well as the Grand, is expressed as strongly
by silence, or a bare word, as in a number of periods. ‘There

(72 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.
in the ‘Odyssey, which is undoubtedly noble,

and far above expression.

| ae ae ee oe ee oe: T= a ee ee: ‘rd SOD SO

Act 4. Sc. 4. The preceding scene is wrought up in a mas-
terly manner: we see there, in the truest light, the noble and
generous resentment of Brutus, and the hasty choler and as
hasty repentance of Cassius. After the reconciliation, in the
beginning of the next scene, Brutus -addresses himself to
Cassius.

Bru. O Cassius! I am sick of many griefs.

Cas, Of your philosophy you make no use,

If you give place to accidental evils.

Bru. Noman bears.sorrow better Portia’s dead.

Cas. Ha! Portia!———

Bru. She is dead.

Cas. How ’scap’d I killing when I cross’d you so?

The stroke is heavier, as it.comes unexpected. The grief
is abrupt, because it.is,inexpressible. The heart is melted in
an instant, and tears will start at once in any audience that has
generosity enough to be moved, or is capable of sorrow and
pity. ,
When words are too weak, or colours too faint, to represent
a Pathos, as the poet will be silent, so the painter will hide
what he cannot shew. Timanthes, in his Sacrifice of Iphige-
nia, gave Calchas a sorrowful look; he then painted Ulysses
more sorrowful ; and afterwards her uncle Menelaus, with all .
the grief and concern in his countenance which his pencil was
able to display. By this gradation he had exhausted the pas-
sion, and had no art left for the distress of her father Agamem-
non, which required the strongest heightening of all. He
therefore covered up his head in his garment, and left the
spectator to imagine that excess of anguish which colours
were unable to express,

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 1S

To arrive at excellence like this, we must
needs suppose that which is the cause of it ;_
I mean, that an orator of the true genius must
have no mean and ungenerous way of think-
ing. For it is impossible for those who have
grovelling and servile ideas, or are engaged in
the sordid pursuits of life, to produce any
thing worthy of admiration, and the perusal
of all posterity. Grand and sublime expres-
sions must flow from them and them alone,
whose conceptions are stored and big with
greatness. And hence it is, that the greatest
thoughts are always uttered by the greatest
souls) When Parmenio cried, *“ I would

2 < T would accept these proposals,” &c.] There is a
great gap in the original after these words. The sense has
been supplied by the editors, from the well-known records of
history. The proposals here mentioned were made to Alex-
ander by Darius ; and were no less than his own daughter, and
half his kingdom, to purchase peace. ‘They would have con-
tented Parmenio, but were quite too small for the extensive
views of his master.

Dr. Pearce, in his note to this passage, has instanced a brave
reply of Iphicrates. When he appeared to answer an accu-
sation preferred against him by Aristophon, he demanded of
him, “ Whether he would have betrayed his country fora sum
of money?” Aristophon replied in the negative. ‘‘ Have I
then done,” cried Iphicrates, “ what even you would have
scorned to do °”

F

74 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

accept these proposals, if I was Alexander ;”
Alexander made this noble reply, ‘‘ And so
would I, if I was Parmenio.” His answer
shewed the greatness of his mind.

So *the space between heaven and earth
marks out the vast reach and capacity of
Homer’s ideas, when he says,*

* While scarce the skies her horrid head can bound,
She stalks on earth.—— Mr. Pope.

There is the same evidence of a generous heart, in the
Prince of Orange’s reply to the Duke of Buckingham, who,
to incline him to an inglorious peace with the French, de-
manded, what he could do in that desperate situation of him-
self and his country? ‘* Not to live to see its ruin, but die in
the last dike.”

These short replies have more force, shew a greater soul,
and make deeper impressions, than the most laboured dis-
courses. ‘The soul seems to rouse and collect itself, and then
darts forth at once in the noblest and most conspicuous point
of view.

> Longinus here sets out in all the pomp and spirit of
Homer. How vast is the reach of man’s imagination! and
what a vast idea, “ The space between heaven and earth,” is
here placed before it! Dr. Pearce has taken notice of sucha
thought in the Wisdom of Solomon: ‘Thy almighty Word
leaped down—it touched the heaven, but it stood upon the
earth.” Chap. xviii. 15, 16.

* Thiad. 6. v. 443.

* See the note to this description of Discord, in Mr. Pope’s

translation. Virgil has copied it verbatim, but applied it to
Fame :—

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. [75
This description may with more justice be

applied to Homer’s genius than the extent of

discord. |
But what disparity, what a fall there
is in ° Hesiod’s description of melancholy,

Ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit,

Soon grows the pigmy to gigantic size,

Her feet on earth, her forehead in the skies.

Shakespeare, without any imitation of these great masters,

has, by the natural strength of his own genius, described the
extent of Slander in the greatest pomp of expression, elevation
of thought, and fertility of invention :
Slander,
Whose head is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Out-venoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world. Kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay the secrets of the grave,

Cymbeline.

This viperous slander enters.

And Milton’s description of Satan, when he prepares
for the combat, is (according to Mr. Addison, Spectator, No.
321.) equally sublime with either the description of Discord in
Homer, or that of Fame in Virgil:

Satan alarm’d,

Collecting all his might, dilated stood

Like Teneriff or Atlas unremov’d :

His stature reach’d the sky, and on his crest

Sat horror plum’d,

5 The image of Hesiod, here blamed by Longinus, is bor-
rowed from low life, and has something in it exceedingly nasty.
It offends the stomach, and of course cannot be approved by

EF 2

76 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

if the poem of the Shield may be ascribed
to him!

A filthy moisture from her nostrils flow’d.*

the judgment. ‘This brings to my-remembrance the conduct
of Milton, in his description of Sin and Death, who are set off
in the most horrible deformity. In that of Sin, there is indeed
something loathsome ; and what ought to be painted in that
manner sooner than Sin? Yet the circumstances are picked
out with the nicest skill, and raise a national abhorrence of
such hideous objects.—

The one seem’d woman to the waist, and fair,

But ended foul in many a scaly fold,

Voluminous and vast! a serpent arm’d

With mortal sting : about her middle round

A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing bark’d

With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal: Yet when they list would creep,
If aught disturb’d their noise, into her womb,

And kennel there ; yet there still bark’d, and howl’d
Within, unseen.-

Of Death he says,

black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart.

But Milton’s judiciousness in selecting such circumstances
as tend to raise a just and natural aversion, is no where more
visible than in his description of a lazar-house, ‘Book 11th,
An inferior genius might have amused himself, with expatiating
on the filthy and nauseous objects abounding in so horrible
a scene, and written perhaps like a surgeon rather than a poet.

* Hlesiod. in Scuto Here. v. 267.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 77

He has not represented his image terrible,
but loathsome and nauseous.

But Milton aims only at the passions, by shewing the miseries
entailed upon man, in the most affecting manner, and exciting
at once our horror at the woes of the afflicted, and a generous
sympathy in all their afflictions.

Immediately a place
Before his eyes appear’d, sad, noisome, dark, &c.

It is too long to quote, but the whole is exceedingly poetie ;
the latter part of it sublime, solemn, and touching. We
startle and groan at this scene of miseries, in which the whole
race of mankind is perpetually involved, and of some of which
we ourselves must one day be victims.

Sight so deform, what heart of rock could long
Dry-ey’d behold!

To return to the remark. There is a serious turn, .an

inborn sedateness in the mind, which renders images of terror
grateful and engaging. Agreeable sensations are not only
produced by bright and lively objects, but sometimes by such
as are gloomy and solemn. It is not the blue sky, the cheer-
ful sunshine, or the smiling landskip, that give us all our plea-
sure, since we are indebted for no little share of it to the silent
night, the distant howling wilderness, the melancholy grot, the
dark wood, and hanging precipice. What is terrible, cannot
be described too well; what is disagreeable should not be
described at all, or at least should be strongly shaded. When
Apelles drew the portrait of Antigonus, who had lost an eye,
he judiciously took his face in profile, that he might hide the
blemish. It is the art of the painter to please, and not to
offend the sight. It is the poet’s to make us sometimes
thoughtful and sedate, but never to raise our distaste by foul
and nauseous representations. .

48 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

On the other hand, with what majesty and
pomp does Homer exalt his deities!
Far asa shepherd from some point on high
O’er the wide main extends his boundless eye,

Through such a space of air, with thund’ring sound,
At one long leap th’ immortal coursers bound.*

Mr. Pope..

He measures the leap of the horses by the
extent of the world. And who is there, that,
considering the superlative magnificence of
this thought, would not with good reason cry
out, that “if the steeds of the Deity were to
take a second leap, ° the world itself would
want room for it !”

How grand also and pompous are those
descriptions of the combat of the gods!’

* Thad. ¢. v. 770.

© It is highly worthy of remark, how Longinus seems here
inspired with the genius of Homer. He not only approves
and admires this Divine thought of the poet, but imitates, I had
almost said, improves and raises it. The space which Homer
assigns to every leap of the horses, is equal to that which the
eye will run over when a spectator is placed upon a lofty emi-
nence, and looks towards the sea, where there is nothing to ob-
struct the prospect. This is sufficiently great; but Longinus
has said what is greater than this, for he bounds not the leap
by the reach of the sight, but boldly avers, that the whole ex-
tent of the world would not afford room enough for two such
leaps.— Dr. Pearce.

7 Milton’s description of the fight of angels is well able to

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. [79
Heav’n in loud thunders bids the trumpet sound,
And wide beneath them groans the rending ground.*

Deep in the dismal regions of the dead
Th’ infernal monarch rear’d his horrid head ;

stand a parallel with the combat of the gods in Homer. His
Venus and Mars make a ludicrous sort of appearance, after
their defeat by Diomed. The engagement between Juno and
Latona has a little of the air of burlesque. His commentators
indeed labour heartily in his defence, and discover fine allego-
ries under these sallies of his fancy. ‘This may satisfy them,
but is by no means a su flicient excuse for the poet. Homer’s
excellences are indeed so many and so great, that they easily
incline us to grow fond of those few blemishes which are dis-
cernible in his poems, and to contend that he is broad awake,
when he is actually nodding. But let us return to Milton,
and take notice of the following lines :

Now storming fury rose

And clamour, such as heard in heav’n, till now,
Was never ; arms on armour clashing bray’d
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels

Of brazen chariots rag’d : dire was the noise
Of conflict! over head the dismal hiss

Of fiery darts in flaming vollies flew,

And flying vaulted either host with fire.

So under fiery cope together rush’d

Both battles main, with ruinous assault

And inextinguishable rage: all heav’n
Resounded ; and had earth been then, all earth
Had to her centre shook.

The thought of “ fiery arches being drawn over the armies
by the flight of flaming arrows,” may give us some idea of Mil-

* Tliad. ¢. ver. 388.

80 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

Leap’d from his throne, lest Neptune’s arm should lay
His dark dominions open to the day,
And pour in light on Pluto’s drear abodes,
Abhorr’d by men, and dreadful ev’n to gods.*
Mr. Pope.

What a prospect is here, my friend!® The
earth laid open to its centre; Tartarus itself
disclosed to view; the whole world in com-
motion, and tottering on its basis! and what
is more, heaven and hell, things mortal and
immortal, all combating together, and sharing
the danger of this important battle! But yet,
these bold representations, if not allegorically

ton’s lively imagination; as the last thought, which is super-
latively great, of the reach of his genius:
———and had earth been then, all earth
Had to her centre shook.

He seems apprehensive, that the mind of his readers was
not stocked enough with ideas, to enable them to form a no-
tion of this battle; and to raise it the more, recals to their re-
membrance the time, or that part of infinite duration in which
it was fought, before time was, when this visible creation ex-
isted only in the prescience of God.

* Iliad, v. ver. 61.

8 That magnificent description of the combat of the gods,
cannot possibly be expressed or displayed in more concise,
more clear, or more sublime terms, than here in Longinus,
This is the excellence of a true. critic, to be able to discern
the excellences of his author, and to display his own in illus-
trating them.—Dr. Pearce.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 81

understood, are downright blasphemy, and
extravagantly shocking.’ For Homer, in my
opinion, when he gives us a detail of the
wounds, the seditions, the punishments, im-
prisonments, tears of the deities, with those
evils of every kind under which they lan-
guish, has to the utmost of his power exalted
his heroes, who fought at Troy, into gods,
and degraded his gods into men. Nay, he
makes their condition worse than human ; for
when man is overwhelmed in misfortunes,
death affords a comfortable port, and rescues
him from misery. But he represents the
infelicity of the gods as everlasting as their
nature.

And how far does he excel those descrip-
tions of the combats of the gods, when
he sets a deity in his true light, and paints
him in all his majesty, grandeur, and per-—
fection; as in that description of Neptune,

® Plutarch, im his treatise on reading the poets, is of the
same opinion with Longinus: “ When you read (says he) in
Homer, of gods thrown out of heaven by one another, or of
gods wounded by, quarrelling with, and snarling at, one ano-
ther, you may with reason say,

Here had thy fancy glow’d with usual heat,
Thy gods had shonemore uniformly great.”

82 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.
which has been already applauded by several
writers :

The forests shake, earth trembled as he trod,

© Fierce as he pass’d the lofty mountains nod,
And felt the footsteps of th’ immortal god. t

» The Deity is described, in a thousand passages of
Scripture, in greater majesty, pomp, and perfection, than that
in which Homer arrays Ais gods. ‘The books of Psalms and
of Job abound in such Divine descriptions. ‘That particu-
larly in the 18th Psalm, ver. 7—10, is inimitably grand:

“ Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations alse
of the hills moved, and were shaken, because he was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his
mouth devoured: coals were kindled at it. He bowed the
heavens also and came down, and darkness was under his feet.
And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly, and came flying upon
the wings of the wind.”

So again, Psalm Ixxvii. 16—19.

“ The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and
were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds
poured out water, the air thundered, and thine arrows went
abroad, The voice of thy thunder was heard round about ;
the lightnings shone upon the ground, the earth was moved
and shook withal. Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in
great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.”

And in general, wherever there is any description of the
works of Omnipotence, or the excellence of the Divine Be-
ing, the same vein of sublimity is always to be discerned. I
beg the reader to peruse in this view the following Psalms,
xlvi. Ixviii, Ixxvi. xevi. xcvil. Civ. Cxiv, CXxxix. cxlvili. as also
chapter ui. of Habakkuk, and the description of the Son of
God in the book of Revelation, chap. xix. 11—17.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 83

His whirling wheels the glassy surface sweep;
Th’ enormous monsters rolling o’er the deep,
Gambol around him on the wat’ry way,

And heavy whales in awkward measures play ;
The sea subsiding spreads a level plain,
Exults and owns the monarch of the main:
The parting waves before his coursers fly ;
The wond’ring waters leave the axle dry.*

Mr. Pope.

1 So likewise the Jewish legislator, no ordi-

Copying such sublime images in the poetical parts of Scrip-
ture, and heating his imagination with the combat of the gods
in Homer, has made Milton succeed so well in his fight of
angels. If Homer deserves such vast encomiums from the
critics, for describing Neptune with so much pomp and mag-
nificence, how can we sufficiently admire those Divine descrip-
tions which Milton gives of the Messiah ?

He on the wings of cherub rode sublime

On the crystalline sky, in sapphire thron’d,
Illustrious far and wide.

Before him pow’r Divine his way prepar’d ;

At his command th’ up-rooted hills retir’d

Each to his place, they heard his voice and went
Obsequious: Heav’n his wonted face renewed,
And with fresh flowrets hill and valley smil’d.

* Thad. y. ver. 18—927.

" This Divine passage has furnished a handle for many of
those who are willing to be thought critics, to shew their pert-
ness and stupidity at once. Though bright as the light of
which it speaks, they are blind to its lustre, and will not.dis-
cern its Sublimity. Some pretend that Longinus never saw

84 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

nary person, having conceived a just idea of
the power of God, has nobly expressed it

this passage, though he has actually quoted it; and that he
never read Moses, though he has left so candid an acknow-
ledgment of his merit. In such company, some, no doubt,
will be surprised to find the names of Huet and Le Clerc.
They have examined, taken to pieces, and sifted it as long as
they were able, yet still they cannot find it Sublime. Itis
sitsple, say they, and therefore not grand. ‘They have tried
it by alaw of Horace misunderstood, and therefore condemn it.

Boileau undertook its defence, and has gallantly performed
it. He shews them, that Simplicity of expression ts so far
from being opposed to Sublimity, that it is frequently the
cause and foundation of it ; (and indeed there is not a page in
Scripture which abounds not with instances to strengthen this
remark.) Horace’s law, that a beginning should be unadorned,
does not by any means forbid_it to be grand, since gran-
deur consists not in ornament and dress. He then shews at
large, that whatever noble and majestic expression, elevation
of thought, and importance of event, can contribute to Subli-
mity, may be found united in this passage. Whoever has the
curiosity to see the particulars of this dispute, may find it in
the edition of Boileau’s works, in four volumes 12mo.

It is however remarkable, that though Monsieur Huet will
not allow the Sublimity of this passage in Moses, yet be ex-
tols the following in the 33d Psalm : “ For he spake, and it
was done ; he commanded, and it stood fast.”

There is a particularity in the manner of quoting this pas-
sage by Longinus, which I think has hitherto escaped obser-
vation. ‘ God said—What ?— Let there be light,” &c. That
interrogation between the narrative part and the words of the
Almighty himself, carries with it an air of reverence and vene-

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 85

in the beginning of his Law.* ‘* And God
said,— What ?— Let there be light, and there
was light. Let the earth be, and the earth
was.”

1 hope my friend will not think me tedious,
if I add another quotation from the poet, in
regard to his mortals; that you may see how
he accustoms us to mount along with him to

heroic grandeur. A thick and impenetrable
cloud of darkness had on a sudden enveloped
the Grecian army, and suspended the battle.
Ajax, perplexed what course to take, prays
thus :+-

Accept a warrior’s pray’r, eternal Jove ;
This cloud of darkness from the Greeks remove ;

ration. It seems designed to awaken the reader, and raise his
awful attention to the voice of the great Creator.

Instances of this majestic simplicity and unaffected gran-
deur, are to be met with in great plenty through the Sacred
Writings. Such as St. John xi. 43. “ Lazarus, come forth.”
St. Matt. vii. 3. “ Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me
clean.” —“ I will; be thou clean.” And St. Mark iv. 39.
where Christ hushes the tumultuous sea into a calm, with
“< Peace (or rather, be silent), be still.” The waters (says a
critic, Sacred Classics, p. 325.) heard that voice, which com-
manded universal nature into being. ‘They sunk at his com-
mand, who has the sole privilege of saying to that unruly ele-
ment, ‘‘ Hitherto shalt thou pass, and no farther: here shall
thy proud waves be stopped.”

* Gen. i. 3. + Iliad. p. ver. 645.

86 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

Give us but light, and let us see our foes,
We'll bravely fall, though Jove himself oppose.

The sentiments of Ajax are here patheti-
cally expressed ; it is Ajax himself. He begs
not for life; a request like that would be be-
neath a hero. But because in that darkness
he could display his valour in no illustrious
exploit, and his great heart was unable to
brook a sluggish inactivity in the field of ac-
tion, he only prays for light, not doubting to
crown his fall with some notable perform-
ance, though Jove himself should oppose his
efforts. Here Homer, like a brisk and fa-
vourable gale, renews and swells the fury of
the battle ; he is as warm and impetuous as
his heroes are, or (as he says of Hector)

With such a furious rage his steps advance,

As when the god of battles shakes his lance,

Or baleful flames on some thick forest cast,
Swift marching lay the wooded mountain waste :
Around his mouth a foamy moisture stands.*

Yet Homer himself shews in the Odyssey
(what I am going to add is necessary on seve-
ral accounts), that when a great genius is in
decline, a fondness for the fabulous clings fast
to age. Many arguments may be brought to

* Tliad. o. ver. 605.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 87

prove that this poem was written after the
Iliad ; but this especially, thatin the Odyssey
he has occasionally mentioned the sequel of
those calamities, which began at ‘Troy, as so
many episodes of that fatal war; and that he
introduces those terrible dangers and horrid
disasters, as formerly undergone by his heroes.
For, in reality, the Odyssey is no more than
the epilogue of the Iliad :
There warlike Ajax, there Achilles lies,

Patroclus there, a man divinely wise ;
There too my dearest son.*

It proceeds, I suppose, from the same rea-
son, that having written the Iliad in the youth
and vigour of his genius, he has furnished it
with continued scenes of action and combat ;
whereas the greatest part of the Odyssey is
spent in narration, the delight of old age.
2 So that, in the Odyssey, Ftomer may with

* Odyss. y. ver. 109.

2 Never did any criticism equal, much less exceed, this of
Longinus in sublimity. He gives his opinion, that Homer’s
Odyssey, being the work of his old age, and written in the de-
cline of his life, and in every respect equal to the Iliad, except
in violence and impetuosity, may be resembled to “ the setting
sun, whose grandeur contmues tiie same, though its rays re-
tain not the same fervent heat.” Let us here take a view of
Longinus, whilst he points out the beauties of the best writers,

88 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

justice be resembled to the setting sun, whose
grandeur still remains, without the meridian

and at the same time his own. Equal himself to the most ce-
lebrated authors, he gives them the eulogies due to their merit.
He not only judges his predecessors by the true laws and stand-
ard of good writing, but Jeaves posterity in himself a model
and pattern of genius and judgment.— Dr. Pearce.

This fine comparison of Homer to the sun, is certainly an
honour to poet and critic. It is a fine resemblance, great,
beautiful, and just. He describes Homer in the same eleva-
tion of thought, as Homer himself would have set off his he-
roes. Fine genius will shew its spirit, and in every age and
climate displays its natural inherent vigour. This remark will,
Lhope, be a proper introduction to the following lines of Mil-
ton, where grandeur, impaired and in decay, is described by
an allusion to the sun in eclipse, by which our ideas are won-
derfully raised to a conception of what it was in all its glory :

He, above the rest,
Tn shape and gesture proudly eminent,

Stood like a tow’r: his form not yet had lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared

Less than archangel ruin’d, and th’ excess

Of glory obscur’d: as when the sun new-ris’n
Looks through the horizontal misty air,

Shorn of his beams; or, from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds

On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs ; darken’d so, yet shone
Above them all th’ archangel.

That horrible grandeur in which Milton arrays his devils
throughout his poem, is an honourable proof of the stretch of
his invention, and the solidity of his judgment. ‘Tasso, iu his

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 89

heat of his beams. Thestyle is not so grand
and majestic as that of the Iliad; the sublimity
not continued with so-much spirit, nor so
uniformly noble ; the tides of passion flow not
along with so much profusion, nor do they
hurry away the reader in so rapid a current.
There is not the same volubility and quick
variation of the phrase; nor is the work em-
bellished with so many strong and expressive
images. Yet, like the ocean, whose very
shores, when deserted by the tide, mark out
how wide it sometimes flows, so Homer’s ge-
nius, when ebbing into all those fabulous and
incredible ramblings of Ulysses, shews plainly
how sublime it once had been. Not that I
am forgetful of those storms, which are dé-

~

4th canto, has opened a council of devils; but his description
of them is frivolous and puerile, savouring too much of old
women’s tales, and the fantastic dreams of ignorance. He
makes some of them walk upon the feet of beasts, and dresses
out their resemblance of a human head with twisting serpents
instead of hair; horns sprout upon their foreheads, and after
them they drag an immense length of tail. It is true, when
he makes his Pluto speak (for he has made use of the old poet-
ical names), he supports his character with a deal of spirit,
and puts such words and sentiments into his mouth as are pro-
perly diabolical. His devil talks somewhat like Milton’s, but
looks not with half that horrible pomp, that height of obscured
glory.

G

900 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

scribed in so terrible a mannerin several parts
of the Odyssey ; of Ulysses’ adventures with
the Cyclop, and some other instances of the
true sublime. No; Iam speaking, indeed, of
old age, but it is the old age of Homer. How-
ever, it is evident, from the whole series of
the Odyssey, that there is far more narration
in it than action.

I have digressed thus far merely for the
sake of shewing, that, in the decline of their
vigour, the greatest geniuses are apt to turn
aside unto trifles. ‘Those stories of shutting
up the winds in a bag; of the men in Circe’s
island metamorphosed into swine, whom
*Zoilus calls little squeaking pigs ; of Jupiter's
being nursed by the doves like one of their
young; of Ulysses in a wreck, when he took
no sustenance for ten days; and those incre-
dible absurdities concerning the death of the
suitors: all these are undeniable instances of

186¢ Zoilus.”] The most infamous name of a certain author,
of Thracian extraction, who wrote a treatise against the iad
and Odyssey of Homer, and entitled it, Homer’s Reprimand ;
which so exasperated the people of that age, that they put the
author to death, and sacrificed him as it were to the injured
genius of Homer. His enterprise was certainly too daring,
his punishment undoubtedly too severe.—-—Dr. Pearce.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME, 91

this in the Odyssey. ** Dreams indeed they
are, but such as even Jove might dream.
Accept, my friend, in further excuse of
this digression, my desire of convincing you,
that a decrease of the Pathetic in great ora-
tors and poets often ends in the* moral kind

14 After Longinus had thus summed up the imperfections
of Homer, one might imagine, from the usual bitterness of
critics, that a heavy censure would immediately follow. But
the true critic knows how to pardon, to excuse, and to exte-
nuate. Such conduct is uncommon, but just. We see by it
at once the worth of the author, and the candour of the judge.
With persons of so generous a bent, his Translator has fared
as wellas Homer. Mr. Pope’s “ faults (in that performance)
are the faults of a man, but his beauties are the beauties of an
Essay on the Odyssey.

45 'The word moral does not fully give the idea of the ori-
ginal word Soc, but our language will not furnish any other
that comes so near it. The meaning of the passage is, that
great authors, in the youth and fire of their genius, abound

angel.”

chiefly in such passions as are strong and vehement; but in
their old age and decline, they betake themselves to such as
are mild, peaceable, and sedate. At first they endeavour to
move, to warm, to transport; but afterwards to amuse, de-
light, and persuade. In youth, they strike at the imagination ;
in age, they speak more to our reason. For though the pas-
sions are the same in their nature, yet, at different ages, they
differ in degree. Love, for instance, is a violent, hot, and im-
petuous passion; Esteem is a sedate, and cool, and peaceable
affection of the mind. The youthful fits and transports of the
former, in progress of time, subside and settle in the latter. So

G2

92 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

of writing. Thus the Odyssey, furnishing us
with rules of morality, drawn from that course
of life which the suitors led in the palace of
Ulysses, has in some degrees the air of a co-
medy, where the various manners of men are
ingeniously and faithfully described.

SECTION X._

Ler us consider next, whether we cannot
find out some other means to infuse sublimity
into our writings. Now, as there are no sub-
jects which are not attended by some adherent
circumstances, an accurate and judicious

a storm is different from a gale, though both are wind.
Hence it is, that bold scenes of action, dreadful alarms, af-
fecting images of terror, and such violent turns of passion, as
require a stretch of fancy to express or to conceive, employ the
vigour and maturity of youth, in which consists the nature of
the Pathetic ; but amusing narrations, calm descriptions, de-
lightful landskips, and more even and peaceable affections,
are agreeable in the ebb of life, and therefore more frequently
attempted, and more successfully expressed by a declining ge-
nius. ‘This is the moral kind of writing here mentioned, and
by these particulars is Homer’s Odyssey distinguished from
his Lliad. ‘The raSoc and Sec so frequently used, and so im-
portant in the Greek critics, are fully explained by Quincti-
lian, in the sixth book of his Institut. Orat.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 93

‘choice of the most suitable of these circum-
stances, and an ingenious and skilful con-
nexion of them into one body, must necessa-
rily produce the Sublime. For what by the
judicious choice, and what by the skilful con-
nexion, they cannot but very much affect the
imagination.

Sappho is an instance of this; who, having
observed the anxieties and tortures insepara-
ble to jealous love, has collected and dis-
played them all with the most lively exact-
ness. But in what particular has she shewn
her excellence? In selecting those circum-
stances which suit best with her subject, and
afterwards connecting them together with so
much art. eo

Blest as th’ immortal gods is he,

The youth who fondly sits by thee,
And hears, and sees thee all the while
Softly speak, and sweetly smile,

Twas this depriv’d my soul of rest,
And rais’d such tumults in my breast ;
For while I gaz’d, in transport tost,
My breath was gone, my voice was lost.

My bosom glow’d; the subtile flame
Ran quick through all my vital frame ;
O’er my dim eyes a darkness hung ;
My ears with hollow murmurs rung.

OA LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

In dewy damps my limbs were chill’d;
My blood with gentle horrors thrill’d;
My feeble pulse forgot to play,
I fainted, sunk, and died away.!
Philips.

1 There is a line at the end of this Ode of Sappho in the
original, which is taken no notice of in the translation, because
the sense is complete without it, and if admitted, it would
throw confusion on the whole.

The title of this Ode in Ursinus, in the fragments of
Sappho, is, To the beloved Fair ; anditis the right. For Plu-
tarch (to omit the testimonies of many others), in his Eroticon,
has these words : “* The beautiful Sappho says, that at sight
of her beloved fair, her voice was suppressed,” &c. Besides,
Strabo and Athenzus tells us, that the name of this fair one
was Dorica, and that she was loved by Charaxus, Sappho’s
brother. Let us then suppose that this Dorica, Sappho’s in-
famous paramour, receives the addresses of Charaxus, and
admits him into her company as her Jover. This very mo-
ment Sappho unexpectedly enters, and stricken at what she
sees, feels tormenting emotions. In this Ode, therefore, she
endeavours to express that wrath, jealousy, and anguish, which
distracted her with such variety of torture. ‘This, in my opi-
nion, is the subject of the Ode. And whoever joins in my
sentiments, cannot but disapprove the following verses in the
French translation by Boileau:

—dans les doux transports od s’égarg mon ame :

And,
Je tombe dans des douces langueurs.

The word doux will inno wise express the rage and distraction
of Sappho’s mind. It is always used in a contrary sense.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 95

Are you not amazed, my friend, to find how
in the same moment she is at a loss for her

Catullus has translated this Ode almost verbally, and Lucre-
tius has imitated it in his third book.—Dr. Pearce.

The English translation I have borrowed from the Specta-
tor, No. 229. It was done by Mr. Philips, and has been
very much applauded, though the following line,

For while I gaz’d, in transport tost,
and this,
My blood with gentle horrors thrill’d,

will be liable to the same censure with Boileau’s douces lan-
gueurs.

A critique on this Ode may be seen in the same Spectator.
It has been admired in all ages, and besides the imitation of
it by Catullus and Lucretius, a great resemblance of it is
easily perceivable in Horace’s Ode to Lydia, lib. 1. od. 13, and
in Virgil’s Adueid, lib. 4.

Longinus attributes its beauty to the judicious choice of
those circumstances which are the constant, though surprising
attendants upon love. It is certainly a passion that has more
prevalent sensations of pleasure and pain, and affects the mind
with a greater diversity of impressions, than any other.

Love is a smoke, rais’d with the fume of sight ;

Being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes:

Being vex’d, a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears :

What is it else? a madness most discreet,

A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. ;
Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet.

The qualities of love are certainly very proper for the ma-
nagement of a good poet. It is a subject on which many may

96 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.:

soul, her body, her ears, her tongue, her eyes,
her colour, all of them as much absent from

shine in different lights, yet keep clear of all that whining and
rant with which the stage is continually pestered. The an-
cients have scarcely meddled with it in any of their tragedies.
Shakespeare has shewn it, in almost all its degrees, by different
characters in one or other of his plays. Otway has wrought
it up finely im the Orphan, to raise our pity. Dryden expresses
its thoughtless violence very well, in his All for Love. Mr.
Addison has painted it both successful and unfortunate, with
the highest judgment, in his Cato. But Adam and Eve, in
Milton, are the finest picture of conjugal love that ever was
drawn. In them it is true warmth of affection, without the
violence or fury of passion; a sweet and reasonable tenderness,
without any cloying or insipid fondness. In its serenity and
sunshine, itis noble, amiable, endearing, and innocent. When
it jars and goes out of tune, as on some occasions it will, there
is anger and resentment, He is. gloomy, she complains and
weeps, yet love has still its force. Eve knows how to submit,
and Adam to forgive. We are pleased that they have quar-
relled, when we see the agreeable manner in which they are
reconciled. They have enjoyed prosperity, and will share
adversity together. And the last scene in which we behold
this unfortunate coup'e, is when

They hand in hand, with wand’ring steps and slow,
Through Eden take their solitary way.

Tasso, in his Gierusalemme Liberata, has lost no opportunity
of embellishing his poem with some incidents of this passion.
He even breaks in upon the rules of Epic, by introducing the
episode of Olindo and Sophronia, in his 2d canto: for they
never appear again in the poem, and have no share in the ac-
tion of it. Two of his great personages are a husband and

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. O7

her, as if they had never belonged to her?
And what contrary effects does she feel toge-
ther ? She glows, she chills, she raves, she rea-
sons; now she is in tumults, and now she is
dying away. Ina word, sheseems not to be
attacked by one alone, but by a combination
of the most violent passions.

All the symptoms of this kind are true ef-
fects of jealous love; but the excellence of
this Ode, as I observed before, consists in the
judicious choice and connexion of the most
notable circumstances. And it proceeds from
his due application of the most formidable
incidents, that the poet excels so much in
describing tempests. The * author of the

a

wife, who fight always side by side, and die together. ‘The
power, the allurements, the tyranny of beauty, is amply dis-
played in the coquettish character of Armida, in the 4th canto.
He indeed always shews the effects of the passion in true
colours ; but then he does more, he refines and plays upon
them with fine-spun conceits. He fiourishes like Ovid on
every little incident, and recals our attention from the poem,
to take notice of the poet’s wit. This might be writing in the
Italian taste, but it is not nature. Homer was above it, in his
fine characters of Hector and Andromache, Ulysses and Pe-
nelope. ‘The judicious Virgil has rejected it, in his natural
picture of Dido. Milton has followed and improved upon
his great masters, with dignity and judgment.

? Aristeus, the Proconnesian, is said to have wrote a poem,

98 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

poem on the Arimaspians doubts not but
these lines are great and full of terror:

Ye pow’rs, what madness ! How on ships so frail
(Tremendous thought !) can thoughtless mortals sail ?
For stormy seas they quit the pleasing plain,

Plant woods in waves, and dwell amidst the main.
Far o’er the deep (a trackless path) they go,

And wander oceans in pursuit of woe.

No ease their hearts, no rest their eyes can find,

On heav’n their looks, and on the waves their mind ;
Sunk are their spirits, while their arms they rear,
And gods are wearied with their fruitless pray’r.

Mr. Pope.

Every impartial reader will discern that
these lines are florid more than terrible. But
how does Homer raise a description, to men-
tion only one example amongst a thousand !

3 He bursts upon them all:

Bursts as a wave that from the cloud impends,

And swell’d with tempests on the ship descends ;
White are the decks with foam ; the winds aloud
Howl o’er the masts, and sing through every shroud :

called Ap:zaczeva; or, of the affairs of the Arimaspians, a Scy-
thian people, situated far from any sea. The lines here quoted
seem to be spoken by an Arimaspian, wondering how men
dare trust themselves in ships, and endeavouring to describe
Dr. Pearce.

3 There is a description of a tempest in the 107th Psalm,
which runs ina very high vein of sublimity, and has more

the seamen in the extremities of a storm.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 99

Pale, trembling, tir’d, the sailors freeze with fears,
And instant death on ev’ry wave appears.*

Mr. Pope.

spirit in it than the applauded descriptions in the authors of
antiquity; because when the storm is in all its rage, and
the danger become extreme, almighty power is introduced to
calm at once the roaring main, and give preservation to the
miserable distressed. It ends in that fervency of devotion,
which such grand occurrences are fitted to raise in the minds
of the thoughtful.

“He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which
lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to heaven, they
go down again to the depths; their soul is melted away be-
cause of trouble. They reel to and fro like a drunken man,
and are at their wit’s-end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He
maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad, because they be quiet; so he bringeth
them unto their desired haven. Oh! that men would praise
the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the
children of men !”

Shakespeare has, with inimitable art, made use of a storm
in his tragedy of King Lear, and continued it through seven
scenes. In reading it, one sees the piteous condition of those
who are exposed to it in open air; one almost hears the wind
and thunder, and beholds the flashes of lightning. The anger,
fury, and passionate exclamations of Lear himself, seem to
rival the storm, which is as outrageous in his breast, inflamed
and ulcerated by the barbarities of his daughters, as in the ele-
ments themselves. We view him 3

Contending with the fretful elements,
Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea,

* Tliad. o. ver. 624.

100 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

Aratus has attempted a refinement upon
the last thought, and turned it thus,

A slender plank preserves them from their fate. *

Or swell the curled waters ’bove the main,

That things might change or cease : tears his white hair,
Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage

Catch in their fury.—-—

We afterwards see the distressed old man exposed to all the
inclemencies of the weather; nature itself in hurry and disor-
der, but he as violent and boisterous as the storm :

Rumble thy belly-full, spit fire, spout rain ;
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters ;

I tax not you, ye elements !

And immediately after,

Let the great gods,

That keep this dreadful thund’ring o’er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. ‘Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes

Unwhipt of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand,
Thou perjur’d, and thou simular man of virtue,

‘That art incestuous : caitiff, shake to pieces,

That under covert and convenient seeming

Hast practis’d on man’s life. Close pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and ask

These dreadful summoners grace.

The storm still continues, and the poor old man is forced
along the open heath, to take shelter in a wretched hovel.
There the poet has laid new incidents, to stamp fresh terror on

the imagination, by lodging Edgar in it before them. The

uf.
Fr

Z * Arati Phenomen. ver. 299.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 101

But instead of increasing the terror, he only
lessens and refines it away; and besides, he
sets a bound to the impending danger, by
saying, “a plank preserves them,” thus ba-
nishing their despair. But the poet is so far
from confining the danger of his sailors, that
he paints them in a most desperate situation,
while they are only not swallowed up in every

passions of the old king are so turbulent, that he will not be
persuaded to take any refuge. When honest Kent entreats
him to go in, he cries,

Prithee go in thyself, seek thy own ease ;

This tempest will not give me leave to ponder

On things would hurt me more——

Nay, get thee in ; [’ll pray, and then I'll sleep——

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,

That ’bide the pelting of this pitiless storm!

How shal! your houseless heads, and unfed sides,

Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you

From seasons such as these ?—Oh! I have ta’en

Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp,

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,

That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,

And shew the heav’ns more just.

The miseries and disorders of Lear and Edgar are then
painted with such judicious horror, that every imagination must
be strongly affected by such tempests in reason and nature,
[ have quoted those passages which have the moral reflections
in them, since they add solemnity to the terror, and alarm at
once a variety of passions.

102 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

wave, and have death before their eyes as fast
as they escape it. * Nay more, the danger
is discerned in the very hurry and confusion
of the words; the verses are tossed up and
down with the ship, the harshness and jarring
of the syllables give us a lively image of the
storm, and the whole description is in itself a
terrible and furious tempest.

It is by the same method that Archilochus
has succeeded so well in describing a wreck ;
and Demosthenes, where he relates * the con-

4 « Nay more, the danger,” &c.—] I have given this sentence
such a turn as I thought would be most suitable to our language,
and have omitted the following words, which occur in the ori-
ginal : “ Besides, he has forcibly united some prepositions
that are naturally averse to union, and heaped them one
upon another, vz’ « Savaroo. By this means the danger is
discerned,” &c.

The beauty Longinus here commends in Homer, of making
the words correspond: with the sense, is one of the most ex-
cellent that can be found in composition. ‘The many and re-
fined observations of this nature in Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
are an evidence how exceedingly fond the ancients were of it.
There should be a style of sound as well as of words, but
such a style depends on a great command of language, and a
musical ear. We see a great deal of it in Milton, but in Mr.
Pope it appears to perfection. It would be folly to quote ex-
amples, since they can possibly escape none who can read and
hear.

* Orat. de Corona.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 103

fusions at Athens, upon arrival of ill news.°
‘¢ It was (says he) in the evening,” &c. If
I may speak by a figure, they reviewed the
forces of their subjects, and culled out the
flower of them, with this caution, not to place
any mean, or indecent, or coarse expression
in so choice a body. For such expressions
are like mere patches, or unsightly bits of
matter, which in this edifice of grandeur en-
tirely confound the fine proportions, mar

5 The whole passage in Demosthenes’ oration runs thus :

‘Tt was evening when a courier brought the news to the ma-
gistrates of the surprisal of Elatea. Immediately they arose,
though in the midst of their repast. Some of them hurried
away to the Forum, and driving the tradesmen out, set fire to
ther shops. Others fled to advertise the commanders of the
army of the news, and to summon the public herald. The
whole city was full of tumult. On the morrow, by break of
day, the magistrates convene the senate. You, gentlemen,
obeyed the summons. Before the public council proceeded
to debate, the people took their seats above. When the senate
were come in, the magistrates laid open the reasons of their
meeting, and produced the courier. He confirmed their re-
port. ‘The herald demanded aloud, Who would harangue ?
Nobody rose up. The herald repeated the question several
times. In vain: nobody rose up: nobody harangued ;
though all the commanders of the army were there, though
the orators were present, though the common voice of our

country joined in the petition, and demanded an oration for the
public safety.”

104. LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

the symmetry, and deform the beauty of the
whole.

SECTION XI.

THERE is another virtue bearing great affi-
nity to the former, which they call Amplifi-
cation; whenever (the topics on which we
write or debate, adinitting of several begin-
nings, and several pauses in the periods) the
great incidents, heaped one upon another,
ascend by a continued gradation toa summit
of grandeur.t Now this may be done to

1 Lucan has put a very grand amplification in the mouth
of Cato:

Estne dei sedes, nisi terra, et pontus, et aer,

Et coelum, et virtus? Superos quid querimus ultra ?

Jupiter est, quodcunque vides, quocunque movebis.
P 74 »q

There is a very beautiful one in Archbishop Tillotson’s 12th
sermon :— le

“Tis pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to
excel many others: ’Tis pleasant to grow better, because that
is to excel ourselves: Nay, ’tis pleasant even to mortify and —
subdue our lusts, because that is victory: ”Tis pleasant to com-
mand our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due
order, within the bounds of reason and religion, because this is
empire.”

~

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 105

ennoble what is familiar, to aggravate what is
wrong, to increase the strength of arguments,
to set actions in their true light, or skilfully
to manage a passion, and a thousand ways
besides. But the orator must never forget
this maxim, that in things however amplified,
there cannot be perfection, without a senti-
ment which is truly Sublime, unless when we
are to move compassion, or to make things
appear as vile and contemptible. But in all
other methods of Amplification, if you take
away the sublime meaning, you separate as it
were the soul from the body. For no sooner
are they deprived of this necessary support,
but they grow dull and languid, lose all their
vigour and nerves.

What I have said now differs from what
went immediately before. My design was
then to shew how much a judicious choice
and an artful connexion of proper incidents
heighten a subject. But in what manner this

But no author amplifies in so noble a manner as St. Paul.
He rises gradually from earth to heaven, from mortal man to
God himself. “ For all things are yours, whether Paul, or
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things
present, or things to come: all are yours; and ye are Christ’s ;
and Christ is God’s.”—1 Cor, ili. 21—23. See also Rom.
viii. 29, 30. 38, 39.

Hi

106 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

sort of Sublimity differs from Amplification,
will soon appear by exactly defining the true
notion of the latter.

SECTION XII.

I can by no means approve of the defini-
tion which writers of rhetoric give of Ampli-
fication. ‘«* Amplification (say they) is a form
of words aggrandizing the subject.” Now this
definition may equally serve for the Sublime,
the Pathetic, and the application of Tropes ;
for these also invest discourse with peculiar
airs of grandeur. In my opinion, they differ
in these respects: Sublimity consists in lofti-
ness, but Amplification in number ; whence
the former is often visible in one single
thought; the other cannot be discerned, but
in aseries and chain of thoughts rising one
~ upon another. |

** Amplification therefore (to give an exact
idea of it), is such a full and complete con-
nexion of all the particular circumstances
inherent in the things themselves, as gives
them additional strength, by dwelling some |
time upon, and progressively heightening a

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 107

particular point.” It differs from Proof in a
material article, since the end of a Proof is to
establish the matter in debate * *.* *
{The remainder of the Author’s remarks on

Amplification is lost. What comes next is

imperfect ; but it is evident from what fol-

lows, that Longinus is drawing a parallel

between Plato and Demosthenes.| * * *
(Plato) may be compared to the ocean,
whose waters, when hurried on by the tide,
overflow their ordinary bounds, and are dif-
fused into a vast extent. And in my opinion,
thisis the cause thatthe orator ( Demosthenes ),
striking with more powerful might at the pas-
sions, is inflamed with fervent vehemence,
and passionate ardour; whilst Plato, always
grave, sedate, and majestic, though he never
was cold or flat, yet fell vastly short of the
impetuous thundering of the other.

And it is in the same points, my dear Tr-
RENTIANUS, that Cicero and Demosthenes
(if we Grecians may be admitted to speak our
opinions), differ in the Sublime. The one is at
the same time grand and concise, the other
grand and diffusive. Our Demosthenes, ut-
tering every sentence with such force, pre-
cipitation, strength, and vehemence, that it
seems to be all fire, and bears down every

H 2

JO8 LONGINUS ON ‘THE SUBLIME.

thing before it, may justly be resembled to
a thunderbolt, or a hurricane. But Cicero,
like a wide conflagration, devours and spreads
on all sides; his flames are numerous, and
their heat is lasting; they break out at dif-
ferent times in different quarters, and are
nourished up to a raging violence by succes-
sive additions of proper fuel. I must not
however pretend to judge in this case so well
as you. But the true season of applying so
forcible and intense a Sublime as that of
Demosthenes, is, in the strong efforts of dis-
course, in vehement attacks upon the pas-
sions, and whenever the audience are to be
stricken at once, and thrown into consterna-
tion. And recourse must be had to such dif-
fusive eloquence as that of Cicero, when they
are to be soothed and brought over by gentle
and soft insinuation. Besides, this diffuse
kind of eloquence is most proper for all fa-
miliar topics ; for perorations, digressions, for
easy narrations or pompous amusements, for
history, for short accounts of the operations
of nature, and many other sorts.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 109

SECTION XIII.

*'To leave this digression. ‘Though Plato’s
style particularly excels in smoothness, and
an easy and peaceable flow of the words, yet
neither does it want an elevation and gran-
deur’; and of this you cannot be ignorant,

+ <¢'To leave this digression.”] These words refer to what
Longinus had said of Plato in that part of the preceding Sec-
tion, which is now almost wholly lost: and from hence it is
abundantly evident, that the person whom he had there com-
pared with the orator was Plato.— Dr. Pearce.

* That Archbishop Tillotson was possessed, in an eminent
degree, of the same sweetness, fluency of style, and elevated
sense, which are so much admired in Plato, can be denied by
none who are versed in the writings of that author. The fol-
lowing passage, on much the same subject as the instance here
quoted by our Critic from Plato, may be of service in strength-
ening this assertion : he 1s speaking of persons deeply plunged
in sin :—

‘¢ If consideration,” says he, ‘“ happen to take them at any
advantage, and they are so hard pressed by it that they cannot
escape the sight of their own condition ; yet they find them-
selves so miserably entangled and hampered in an evil course,
and bound so fast in chains of their own wickedness, that they
know not how to get loose. Sin is the saddest slavery in the
world ; it breaks and sinks men’s spirits, and makes them so
base and servile, that they have not the courage to rescue them-
selves. No sort of slaves are so poor-spirited as they that are
in bondage to their lusts. The power is gone; or if they

110 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

as you have read the following passage in his
Republic.* ‘Those wretches (says he) who
never have experienced the sweets of wisdom
and virtue, but spend all their time in revels
and debauches, sink downwards day after
day, and make their whole life one continued
series of errors. They never have the cou-
rage to lift the eye upwards towards truth,
they never felt any the least inclination to it.
They taste no real or substantial pleasure ;
but resembling so many brutes, with eyes al-
ways fixed on the earth, and intent upon
their loaden tables, they pamper themselves
up in luxury and excess. So that hurried on
by their voracious and insatiable appetites,
they are continually running and kicking at
one another with hoofs and horns of steel,
and are embrued in perpetual slaughter.”

have any left, they have not the heart to make use of it, And
though they see and feel their misery, yet they choose rather to
sit down in it, and tamely to submit to it, than to make any
resolute attempts for their liberty.” And afterwards—“ Blind
and miserable men! that, in despite of all the merciful warn-
ings of God’s word and providence, will run themselves into
this desperate state, and never think of returning to a better
mind till their retreat is difficult, almost to an impossibility,” —
29th Sermon, Vol. I. folio.
* Plato, lib. 9. de Rep. p. 586. edit. Steph.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 111

This excellent writer, if we can but resolve
to follow his guidance, opens here before us
another path, besides those already men-
tioned, which will carry to the true Sublime.
—And what is this path ?—Why, an imitation
and emulation of the greatest orators and
poets that ever flourished. And let this, my
friend, be our ambition; be this the fixed and
lasting scope of all our labours.

For hence it is, that numbers of imitators
are ravished and transported by a spirit not
their own, *like the Pythian Priestess, when
she approaches the sacred tripod. ‘There is,
if Fame speaks true, a chasm in the earth,
from whence exhale Divine evaporations, which

5 This parallel or comparison drawn between the Pythian
Priestess of Apollo and imitators of the best authors, is happily
invented, and quite complete. Nothing can be more beautiful,
more analogous, more expressive. It was the custom for the
Pythian to sit on the tripod, till she was rapt into Divine
frenzy by the operation of effluvia issuing out of the clefts of
the earth. In the same manner, says Longinus, they, who imi-
tate the best writers, seem to be inspired by those whom they
imitate, and to be actuated by their sublime spirit. In this
comparison, those Divine writers are set on a level almost with
the gods; they have equal power attributed to them with the
deity presiding over oracles, and the effect of their operations

on their imitators is honoured with the title of a Divine spirit.
—Dr. Pearce.

112 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

impregnate her on a sudden with the inspira-
tion of her god, and cause in her the utter-
ance of oracles and predictions. So, from
the sublime spirit of the ancients, there arise
some fine effluvia, like vapours from the sa-
cred vents, which work themselves insensibly
into the breasts of imitators, and fill those,
who naturally are not of a towering genius,
with the lofty ideas and fire of others. Was
Herodotus alone the constant imitator of Ho-
mer? No:*Stesichorus and Archilochus imi-
tated him more than Herodotus; but Plato
more than all of them; who, from the co-
pious Homeric fountain, has drawn a thou-
sand rivulets to cherish and improve his own
productions. Perhaps there might be a ne-
cessity of my producing some examples of
this had not Ammonius done it to my hand.

Nor is such proceeding to be looked up-
on as plagiarism, but, in methods consistent
with the nicest honour, an imitation of the
finest pieces, or copying out those bright ori-

¢

4 Stesichorus, a noble poet, inventor of the Lyric Chorus,
was born, according to Suidas, in the thirty-seventh Olympiad.
Quinctilian, Instit. Orat. 1. x. c. 1. says thus of him :—“ If he
had kept in due bounds, he seems to have been able to come the
nearest to a rivalship with Homer.”—Dr. Pearce.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 113

ginals. Neither do I think that Plato would
have so much embellished his philosophical
tenets with the florid expressions of poetry,
*had he not been ambitious of entering the
lists, like a youthful champion, and ardently
contending for the prize with Homer, who
had a long time engrossed the admiration of
the world. The attack was perhaps too rash,
the opposition perhaps had too much the air

5 Plato, in his younger days, had an inclination to poetry,
and made some attempts in tragedy and epic ; but finding them
unable to bear a parallel with the verses of Homer, he threw
them into the fire, and abjured that sort of writing, in which he
was convinced he must always remain an inferior : however, the
style of his prose has a poetical sweetness, majesty, and eleva-
tion. Though he despaired of equalling Homer in his own
way, yet he has nobly succeeded in another, and is justly
esteemed the Homer of philosophers. Cicero was so great an
admirer of him that he said, ‘ If Jupiter conversed with men,
he would talk in the language of Plato.” 1t was a common
report in the age he lived, that bees dropped honey on his lips
as he lay in the cradle. And it is said, that, the night before
he was placed under the tuition of Socrates, the philosopher
dreamed he had embraced a young swan in his bosom; who,
after his feathers were full grown, stretched out his wings, and
soared to an immense height in the air, singing all the time —
with inexpressible sweetness. This shews at least what a great
opinion they then entertained of his eloquence, since they
thought its appearance worthy to be ushered into the world
with omens and prognostics.

114 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

of enmity, but yet it could not fail of some
advantage; for, as Hesiod says,*

Such brave contention works the good of men.

A greater prize than the glory and renown
of the ancients can never be contended for,
where victory crowns with never-dying ap-
plause; when even a defeat, in such a com-
petition, is attended with honour.

————

SECTION XIV.

Ir ever therefore we are engaged in a work
which requires a grandeur of style and ex-
alted sentiments, would it not then be of use
to raise in ourselves such reflections as these?
-—How in this case would Homer, or Plato,
or Demosthenes, have raised their thoughts?
Or if it be historical—how would Thucy-
dides? For these celebrated persons, being
proposed by us for our pattern and imitation,
will in some degree lift up our souls to the
standard of their own genius. It will be yet
of greater use, if to the preceding reflections
we add these—What would Homer or De-
mosthenes have thought of this piece? or
what judgment would they have passed upon

* Hesiod. in operibus et diebus, ver. 24.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 115

it? It is really a noble enterprise, to frame
such a theatre and tribunal, to sit on our own
compositions, and submit them to a scrutiny,
in which such celebrated heroes must preside
as our judges, and be at the same time our
evidence. There is yet another motive which
may yield most powerful incitements, if we
ask ourselves—W hat character will posterity
form of this work, and of me, the author?
For if any one, in the moments of composing,
apprehends that his performance may not be
able to survive him, the productions of a soul,
whose views are so short and confined, that
it cannot promise itself the esteem and ap-
plause of succeeding ages, must needs be im-
perfect and abortive.

SECTION XV.

Visions, which by some are called
Images, contribute very much, my dearest
youth, to the weight, magnificence, and force
of compositions. The name of an Image is
generally given to any idea, however repre-
sented in the mind, which is communicable
to others by discourse ; but a more particu-
lar sense of it has now prevailed: «* When

116 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

the imagination 1s so warmed and affected,
that you seem to behold yourself the very
things you are describing, and to display
them to the life before the eyes of an au-
dience.”

You cannot be ignorant, that rhetorical
and poetical images have a different intent.
The design of a poetical image is surprise,
that of a rhetorical is perspicuity. However,
to move and strike the imagination is a de-
sign common to both. _

1 Pity thy offspring, mother, nor provoke
Those vengeful Furies to torment thy son.

1 Virgil refers to this passage in his fourth A‘neid, ver. 470.
Aut Agamemnonius scenis agitatus Orestes,
Armatam facibus matrem et serpentibus atris
Cum fugit, ultricesque sedent in limine Dire.

_ Or mad Orestes when his mother’s ghost
Full in his face infernal torches toss’d,
And shook her snaky locks: he shuns the sight,
Flies o’er the stage, surpris’d with mortal fright,
The Furies guard the door, and intercept his flight.
Dryden,
“ There is not (says Mr. Addison, Spectator, No. 421.) a
sight in nature so mortifying as that of a distracted person,
when his imagination is troubled, and his whole soul disordered
and confused: Babylon in ruins is not so melancholy a spec-
tacle.”
The distraction of Orestes, after the murder of his mother,
is a fine representation in Euripides, because it is natural. The

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 117

What horrid sights! how glare their bloody eyes!
How twisting snakes curl round their venom’d heads!

consciousness of what he has done is uppermost in his
thoughts, disorders his fancy, and confounds his reason. He
is strongly apprehensive of Divine vengeance, and the violence
of his fears places the avenging furies before his eyes. When-
ever the mind is harassed by the stings of conscience, or the
horrors of guilt, the senses are liable to infinite delusions, and
startle at hideous imaginary monsters. The poet, who can
touch such incidents with happy dexterity, and paint such
images of consternation, will infallibly work on the miads of
others. This is what Longinus commends in Euripides; and
here it must be added, that no poet in this branch of writing
can enter into a parallel with Shakespeare.

When Macbeth is preparing for the murder of Duncan, his
imagination is big with the attempt, and is quite upon the rack,
Within, his soul is dismayed with the horror of so black an
enterprise ; and every thing without looks dismal and affright-
ing. His eyes rebel against his reason, and make him start at
images that have no reality,—

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle tow’rd my hand? come let me clutch thee!
I have thee not—and yet I see thee still.

He then endeavours to summon his reason to his aid, and
convince himself that it is mere chimera ; but in vain, the ter-
ror stamped on his imagination will not be shaken off :

I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.

Here he makes a new attempt to reason himself out of the

delusion, but it is quite too strong :—

I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before—There’s no such thing,—

118 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

In deadly wrath the hissing monsters rise,

Forward they spring, dart out, and leap around me.*
And again :

Alas !—she’ll kill me !—whither shall I fly ?+

The delusion is described in so skilful a manner, that the
audience cannot but share the consternation, and start at the
visionary dagger.

The genius of the poet will appear more surprising, if we
consider how the horror is continually worked up, by the me-
thod in which the perpetration of the murder is represented,
The contrast between Macbeth and his wife is justly charac-
terized, by the hard-hearted villany of the one, and the qualms
of remorse in the other. The least noise, the very sound of
their own voices, is shocking and frightful to both :

Hark! peace!
It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bell-man,
Which gives the stern’st good-night—he is about it.—

And again, immediately after,

— Alack! I am afraid they have awak’d,

And ’tis not done: th’ attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us.—-Hark !—I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss them.

The best way to commend it, as it deserves, would be to
quote the whole scene. The fact is represented in the same
affecting horror as would rise in the mind at sight of the actual
commission. Every single image seems reality, and alarms
the soul. They seize the whole attention, stiffen and benumb
the sense, the very blood curdles and runs cold, through the
strongest abhorrence and detestation of the crime.

* Euripid. Orest. ver. 255.
+ Eunpid. Iphigen. Taur. ver. 408.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 119

The poet here actually saw the furies with
the eyes of his imagination, and has com-
pelled his audience to see what he beheld
himself. Euripides therefore has laboured
very much in his tragedies to describe the
two passions of madness and love, and has
succeeded much better in these than (if I
am not mistaken) in any other. Sometimes,
indeed, he boldly aims at Images of different
kinds. For though his genius was not natu-
rally great, yet in many instances he even
forced it up to the true spirit of tragedy ;
and that he may always rise where his sub-
ject demands it (to borrow an allusion from
the Poet)*

Lash’d by his tail his heaving sides incite
His courage, and provoke himself for fight.

The foregoing assertion is evident from that
passage, where Sol delivers the reins of his
chariot to Phaéton:

2 Drive on, but cautious shun the Lybian air ;
That hot unmoisten’d region of the sky
Will drop thy chariot. +

* Vhad. v. ver. 170.
2 This passage, in all probability, is taken from a tragedy of
Euripides, named Phaeton, which is entirely lost. Ovid had

+ Two fragments of Euripides.

120 EONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

And a little after,

Thence let the Pleiads point thy wary course.
Thus spoke the god. Th’ impatient youth with haste

certainly an eye to it in his Met. 1. ii. when he puts these lines
into the mouth of Phoebus, resigning the chariot of the Sun
to Phaeton :—

Zonarumque trium contentus fine, polumque
Effugit australem, junctamque aquilonibus arcton:
Hac sit iter: manifesta rote vestigia cernes.

Utque ferant zquos et coelum et terra calores,

Nec preme, nec summum molire per ethera currum.
Altius egressus, ceelestia tecta cremabis ;

Inferius terras : medio tutissimus ibis.

Drive ’em not on directly through the skies,

But where the Zodiac’s winding circle lies,

Along the midmost Zone ; but sally forth,

Nor to the distant South, nor stormy North,

The horses’ hoofs a beaten track will shew :

But neither mount too high, nor sink too low ;

That no new fires or heav’n or earth infest ;

Keep the mid-way, the middle way is best. Addison.

The sublimity which Ovid here borrowed from Euripides
he has diminished, almost vitiated, by flourishes. A sublimer
image can no where be found than in the song of Deborah,
after Sisera’s defeat (Judges, v.28—), where the vain-glorious
boasts of Sisera’s mother, when expecting his return, and, as
she was confident, his victorious return, are described :

“ The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried
through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming ? why
tarry the wheels of his chariots? Her wise ladies answered

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 121

Snatches the reins, and vaults into the seat.

He starts ; the coursers, whom the lashing whip

Excites, outstrip the winds, and whirl the car

High through the airy void. Behind, the sire,

Borne on his planetary steed, pursues

With eye intent, and warns him with his voice,

Drive there !—now here !—here! turn the chariot here !

Who would not say, that the soul of the
poet mounted the chariot along with the
rider, that it shared as well in danger asin ra-
pidity of flight with the horses? For, had he
not been hurried on with equal ardour through
all this ethereal course, he could never have
conceived so grand an image of it. There are
some parallel Images in his * Cassandra :

Ye martial Trojans, &c.

/Eschylus has made bold attempts in noble
and truly heroic Images; as, in one of his
tragedies, the seven commanders against
Thebes, without betraying the least sign of
pity or regret, bind themselves by oath not
to survive Eteocles :—

her ; yea, she returned answer to herself: Have they not sped?

have they not divided the prey? to every man a damsel or two;

to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of

needle- work, of divers colours of needle-work on both sides,

meet for the necks of them that take the spoil ?’—Dr. Pearce.
5 The Cassandra of Euripides is now entirely lost.

Nf

122 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

* The seven, a warlike leader each in chief,
Stood round ; and o’er the brazen shield they slew
A sullen bull; then plunging deep their hands
Into the foaming gore, with oaths invok’d
Mars, and Enyo, and blood-thirsting terror.

=x.

*The following Image in Milton is great and dreadful.
The fallen angels, fired by the speech of their leader, are too
violent to yield to his proposal in words, but assent in a man-
ner that at once displays the art of the poet, gives the reader a
terrible idea of the fallen angels, and imprints a dread and
horror on the mind :

He spake; and to confirm his words, out flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim: the sudden blaze

Far round illumin’d hell ; highly they rag’d
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash’d on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance tow’rd the vault of heav’n,

How vehemently does the fury of Northumberland exert
itself in Shakespeare, when he hears of the death of his son
Hotspur. The rage and distraction of the surviving father
shews how important the son was in his opinion. Nothing
must be, now he is not: nature itself must fall with Percy.
His grief renders him frantic, his anger desperate :

Let heav’n kiss earth! now let not nature’s hand
Keep the wild flood confin’d: let order die,
And let this world no longer be a stage

To feed contention in a ling’ring act:

But let one spirit of the first-born Cain

Reign in all bosoms, that each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 128

_ Sometimes, indeed, the thoughts of this
author are too gross, rough, and unpolished ;
yet Euripides himself, spurred on too fast by
emulation, ventures even to the brink of like
imperfections. In /Eschylus the palace of
Lycurgus is surprisingly affected by the sud-
den appearance of Bacchus :

The frantic dome and roaring roofs convuls’d,
Reel to and fro, instinct with rage divine.
Euripides has the same thought, but he has
turned it with much more softness and pro-
priety :
The vocal mount in agitation shakes,°
And echoes back the Bacchanalian cries.

* Tollius is of opinion, that Longinus blames neither the
thought of Euripides nor /Eschylus, but only the word
Buxyever, which, he says, has not so much sweetness, nor raises
so nice an idea, as the word cvpPaxyever. Dr. Pearce thinks
/Eschylus is censured for making the palace instinct with Bac-
chanalian fury, to which Euripides has given a softer and
sweeter turn, by making the mountain only reflect the cries of
the Bacchanals,

There is a daring image, with an expression of a harsh sound,
on account of its antiquity, in Spenser’s Fairy Queen, which
may parallel that of A‘schylus :

She foul blasphemous speeches forth did cast,

And bitter curses horrible to tell ;

‘That ev’n the temple wherein she was plac’d,

Did quake to hear, and nigh asunder brast.
io

ltl

124 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME..

Sophocles has succeeded nobly in his —
Images, when he describes his C2dipus in all
the agonies of approaching death, and bury-
ing himself in the midst of a prodigious tem-
pest ; when he gives usa sight of the ° appari-

Milton shews a greater boldness of fiction than either Euri-
pides or Aischylus, and tempers it with the utmost propriety,
when, at Adam’s eating the forbidden fruit,

Earth trembled from her entrails, as again

Tn pangs, and nature gave a second groan;

Sky lower’d, and mutt’ring thunder, some sad drops
Wept, at completing of the mortal sin.

© The tragedy of Sophocles, where this apparition is de-
scribed, is entirely lost. Dr. Pearce observes, that there is an
unhappy imitation of it in the beginning of Seneca’s 'Troades ;
and another in Ovid. Metam. lib, xiii. 441, neat without spirit,
and elegant without grandeur.

Ghosts are very frequent in English tragedies; but ghosts,
as well as fairies, seem to be the peculiar province of Shake-
speare. In such circles none but he could move with dignity.
That in Hamlet is introduced with the utmost solemnity, awful
throughout, and majestic. At the appearance of Banquo in
Macbeth (Act 3. Sc. 5.) the Images are set off in the strongest
expression, and strike the imagination with high degrees of
horror, which is supported with surprising art through the
whole scene.

There is a fine touch of this nature in Job iv. 13. “ In
thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth
on men, fear came’upon me, and trembling, which made all
my bones to shake: then a spirit passed before my face; the
hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not dis-

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 125

tion of Achilles upon his tomb, at the depart-
ure of the Greeks from ‘Troy. But I know
not whether any one has described that ap-
parition more divinely than ’ Simonides. To
quote all these instances at large would be
endless.

T’o return: Images in poetry are pushed to
a fabulous excess, quite surpassing the bounds
of probability ; whereas in_ oratory, their
beauty consists in the most exact propriety
and nicest truth : and sublime excursions are
absurd and impertinent, when mingled with
fiction and fable, where fancy sallies out into
direct impossibilities. Yet to excesses like
these, our able orators (kind Heaven make
them really such!) are very much addicted.
With the tragedians, they behold the torment-
ing furies, and with all their sagacity never
find out, that when Orestes exclaims,*—

cern the form thereof: an image—before mine eyes—silence
—and I heard a voice,—Shall mortal man be more just than
God?” &ec. Ke.

7 Simonides the Ceian was a celebrated poet. Cicero, de
Orat. 1. 2. declares him the inventor of artificial memory: and
Quinctilian, |. x. c. 1. gives him this commendation as a poet:

“His excellency lay in moving compassion, so that some

prefer him in this particular before all other wniters.”
Dr. Pearce.

* Euripid, Orest. v. 264.

126 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

Loose me, thou fury, let me go, torment’ress :
Close you embrace, to plunge me headlong down
Into th’ abyss of 'Tartarus

the Image had seized his fancy, because the
mad fit was upon him, and he was actually
raving.

What then is the true use of Images in
Oratory? They are capable, in abundance of
cases, to add both nerves and passion to our
speeches. For if the Images be skilfully
blended with the Proofs and Descriptions,
they not only persuade, but subdue an au-
dience. ‘“ If any one (says a great orator*)
should hear a sudden outcry before the tri-
bunal, whilst another brings the news that the
prison is burst open and the captives es-
caped, no man, either young or old, would be
of so abject a spirit as to deny his utmost assist-
ance. Butif amongst this hurry and confu-
sion another should arrive, and cry out, This_
is the Author of these disorders—the : mi-
serable accused, unjudged and unsentenced,
would perish on the spot.”

So Hyperides, when he was accused of pass-
ing an illegal decree, for giving liberty to
slaves, after the defeat of Cheronea ; “ It was

* Demosth. Orat. contra Timocr. non procul a fine.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 127

not an orator,” said he, * that made this de-
cree, but the battle of Cheronea.” At the
same time that he exhibits proofs of his legal
proceedings, he intermixes an Image of the
battle, and by that stroke of art, quite passes
the bounds of mere persuasion. It is natural
to us to hearken always to that which is ex-
traordinary and surprising ; whence it 1s, that
we regard not the Proof so much as the gran-
deur and lustre of the Image, which quite
eclipses the Proof itself. This bias of the mind
has an easy solution; since, when two such
things are blended together, the stronger will
attract to itself all the virtue and efficacy of
the weaker.

These observations will, I fancy, be suffi-
cient, concerning that Sublime which be-
longs to the Sense, and takes its rise either
from an Elevation of Thought, a choice and
connexion of proper Incidents, Amplifica-
tion, Imitation, or Images. |

128 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

PARTY II.

——

- Tur Pathetic, which the Author, Sect. vi.
laid down for the second source of the Sub-
lime, is omitted here, because it was reserved
for a distinct treatise.—See Sect. xliv. with
the note.

EAR Ur

ee

SECTION AYE

Tur topic that comes next in order, is
that of Figures ; for these, when judiciously
used, conduce not.a little to greatness. But
since it would be tedious, if not infinite la-
bour, exactly to describe all the species of
them, I shall instance only some few of those
which contribute most to the elevation of
the style, on purpose to shew that we lay

not a greater stress upon them than is really
their due.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 129

Demosthenes is producing proofs of his
upright behaviour whilst in public employ.
Now, which is the most natural method of
doing this? (‘* You were not in the wrong,
Athenians, when you courageously ventured
your lives in fighting for the liberty and safety
of Greece, of which you have domestic illus-
trious examples. For neither were they in
the wrong who fought at Marathon, who
fought at Salamis, who fought at Platzee.”)
Demosthenes takes another course, and filled
as it were with sudden inspiration, and trans-
ported by a godlike warmth, he thunders out
an oath by the champions of Greece: “ You
were not in the wrong, no, you were not, I
swear, by those noble souls, who were so
lavish of their lives in the field of Marathon,’*
&c. He seems, by this figurative manner of
swearing, which I call an Apostrophe, to
have deified their noble ancestors; at the
same time instructing them, that they ought
to swear by persons, who fell so gloriously,
as by so many gods. He stamps into the
breasts of his judges the generous principles
of those applauded patriots; and by trans-
ferring what was naturally a proof, into a

* Orat. de Corona, p. 124. ed. Oxon.

130 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

soaring strain of the Sublime and the Pa-
thetic, strengthened by* sucha solemn, such
an unusual and reputable oath, he instils that
balm into their minds, which heals every
painful reflection, and assuages the smart of
misfortune. He breathes new life into them
by his artful encomiums, and teaches them
to set as great a value on their unsuccessful
engagement with Philip, as on the victories
of Marathon and Salamis. In short, by the
sole application of this Figure, he violently
seizes the favour and attention of his audi-
ence, and compels them to acquiesce in
the event, as they cannot blame the under- |
taking.

Some would insinuate, that the hint of this
oath was taken from these lines of * Eupolis:

No! by my labours in that glorious * field,
Their joy shall not produce my discontent!

1The observations on this oath are judicious and solid.
But there is one infinitely more solemn and awful in Jeremiah
xxl. 5.

« But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself,
saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.” —
See Genesis xxii. 16. and Hebrews vi. 13.

* Eupolis was an Athenian writer of comedy, of whom
nothing remains at present, but the renown of his name,—
‘Dr. Pearce.

* Marathon.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 131

* But the grandeur consists not in the bare
application of an oath, but in applying it in
the proper place, in a pertinent manner, at
the exactest time, and for the strongest rea-
sons. Yet in Eupolis there is nothing but
an oath, and that addressed to the Athenians,
at a time they were flushed with conquest,
and consequently did not require consolation.
Besides, the poet did not swear by heroes,
whom he had before deified himself, and
thereby raise sentiments in the audience
worthy of such virtue; but deviated from
those illustrious souls, who ventured their lives
for their country, to swear by an inanimate
object, the battle. In Demosthenes, the
oath is addressed to the vanquished, to the
end that the defeat of Cheronea may be no
longer regarded by the Athenians as a mis-
fortune. It is at one time a clear demon-
stration that they had done their duty ; it

5'This judgment is admirable, and Longinus alone says
more than all the writers on rhetoric that ever examined this
passage of Demosthenes. Quinctilian, indeed, was very sensi-
ble of the ridiculousness of using oaths, if they were not ap-
plied as happily as the orator has applied them; but he has
not at the same time laid open the defects, which Longinus
evidently discovers, in a bare examination of this oath in Eu-
polis. — Dacier.

132 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

gives occasion for an illustrious example; it
is an oath artfully addressed, a just encomium
and a moving exhortation. And whereas
this objection might be thrown in his way,
«You speak of a defeat partly occasioned
by your own ill conduct, and then you swear
by those celebrated victories ;” the orator
took care to weigh all his words in the ba-
lances of art, and thereby brings them off
with security and honour. From which pru-
dent conduct we may infer, that sobriety and
moderation must be observed, in the warmest
fits of fire and transport. In speaking of
their ancestors, he says, ‘“ ‘Those who so
bravely exposed themselves to danger in the
plains of Marathon, those who were in the
navalengagements near Salamis and Arte-
misium, and those who fought at Plate ;”
industriously suppressing the very mention
of the events of those battles, because they
were successful, and quite opposite to that
of Cheronea. Upon which account he anti-
cipates all objections, by immediately sub-
joining, “all whom, A‘schines, the city ho-
noured with a public funeral, not because
they purchased victory with their lives, but
because they lost those for their country,”

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 133

SECTION XVII.

I must not in this place, my friend, omit
an observation of my own, which I will men-
tion in the shortest manner: Figures na-
turally impart assistance to, and on the other
side receive it again, in a wonderful man-
ner, from sublime sentiments. And I will
now shew where, and by what means, this is
done.

A too frequent and elaborate application
of Figures, carries with it a great suspicion
of artifice, deceit, and fraud, especially when,
in pleading, we speak before a judge, from
whose sentence lies no appeal; and much
more, if before a tyrant, a monarch, or any
one invested with arbitrary power, or un-
bounded authority. For he grows immedi-
ately angry, if he thinks himself childishly
amused, and attacked by the quirks and sub-
tleties of a wily rhetorician. He regards the
attempt as an insult and affront to his under-
standing, and sometimes breaks out into bit-
ter indignation ; and though perhaps he may
suppress his wrath, and stifle his resentments
for the present, yet he is averse, nay even

134 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME,

deaf, to the most plausible and persuasive
arguments that can be alleged. Wherefore,
a Figure is then most dexterously applied,
when it cannot be discerned that it is a
Figure.

Now adue mixture of the Sublime and
Pathetic very much increases the force, and
removes the suspicion, that commonly attends
on the use of Figures. For veiled, as it were,
and wrapt up in such beauty and grandeur,
they seem to disappear, and securely defy
_ discovery. I cannot produce a better exam-
ple to strengthen this assertion, than the pre-
ceding from Demosthenes: “I swear by those
noble souls,” &c. For in what has the orator
here concealed the Figure? Plainly, in its own
lustre. For as the stars are quite dimmed
and obscured, when the sun breaks out in
all his blazing rays, so the artifices of rheto-
ric are entirely overshadowed by the superior
splendour of sublime thoughts. A _ parallel
illustration may be drawn from painting: for
when several colours of light and shade are
drawn upon the same surface, those of light
seem not only to rise out of the piece, but
even to lie much nearer to the sight. So
the Sublime and Pathetic, either by means
of a great affinity they bear to the springs

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 135

and movements of our souls, or by their own
superlative lustre, always outshine the ad-
jacent Figures, whose art they shadow, and
whose appearance they cover, in a veil of su-
perior beauties.

SECTION XVIII.

Wuart shall I say here of Question and
Interrogation? *Is not discourse enlivened,

1 Deborah’s words, in the person of Sisera’s mother, in-
stanced above on another occasion, are also a noble example
of the use of Interrogations, Nor can I in this place pass
by a passage in the historical part of Scripture ; I mean the
words of Christ, in this Figure of self-interrogation and an-
swer: ‘ What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed
shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? a
man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft
clothing, are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to
see? a prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a pro-
phet.” Matt. xi. 7—9.—Dr. Pearce.

That the sense receives strength, as well as beauty, from
this Figure, is no where so visible as in the poetical and pro-
phetical parts of Scripture. Numberless instances might be
easily produced; and we are puzzled how to pitch on any in
particular, amidst so fine variety, lest the choice might give
room to call our judgment in question, for taking no notice of
others, that perhaps are more remarkable.

Any reader will observe, that there is a poetical air in the

136 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

strengthened, and thrown more forcibly along
by this sort of Figure? ‘* Would you,” says

predictions of Balaam in the 23d chapter of Numbers, and
that there is particularly an uncommon grandeur in ver. 19.

“¢ God is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of
man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? or, hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ?””

What is the cause of this grandeur will immediately be
seen, if the sense be preserved, and the words thrown out of
interrogation:

“ God is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of
man, that he should repent. What he has said, he will do;
and what he has spoke, he will make good.”

The difference is so visible, that it is needless to enlarge
upon it. . ji

How artfully does St. Paul, in Acts xxvi. transfer his dis-
course from Festus to Agrippa. In ver. 26. he speaks of
him in the third person. ‘ The King (says he) knoweth of
these things, before whom | also speak freely ——” ‘Then
in the following he turns short upon him: “¢ King Agrippa,
believest thou the prophets?” and immediately after answers
his own question, “I know that thou believest.” The
smoothest eloquence, the most insinuating complaisance,
could never have made such impression on Agrippa, as this
unexpected and pathetic address.

To these instances may be added the whole 38th chapter
of Job; where we behold the Almighty Creator expostulat-
ing with his creature, in terms which express at once the ma-
jesty and perfection of the one, the meanness and frailty of
the other. There we see how vastly useful! the Figure of In-
terrogation is, in giving us a lofty idea of the Deity, whilst
every Question awes us into silence, and inspires a sense of

our insufficiency.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 137

Demosthenes,* “ go about the city, and de
mand what news? What greater news can
there be, than that a Macedonian enslaves
the Athenians, and lords it over Greece? Is
Philip dead? No: but heis very sick. And
what advantage would accrue to you from
his death, when, as soon as his head is laid,
you yourselves will raise up another Philip?”
And again,} “ Let us set sail for Macedonia.
But where shall we land? *The very war will
discover to us the rotten and unguarded sides
of Philip.” Had this been uttered simply
and without Interrogation, it would have
fallen vastly short of the majesty requisite to
the subject in debate. But as it is, the energy
and rapidity that appears in every question
and answer, and the quick replies to his own
demands, as if they were the objections of —
another person, not only renders his oration
more sublime and lofty, but more plausible
and probable. For the Pathetic then works
the most surprising effects upon us, when it

* Demosth, Philip. Ima. + Tbid.

* Here are two words in the original, which are omitted in
the translation; npero rc, somebody may demand; but they
manifestly debase the beauty of the figure. Dr. Pearce has
an ingenious conjecture, that, having been sometime set as
marginal explanations, they crept insensibly into the text.

138 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

seems not fitted to the subject by the skill of
the speaker, but to flow opportunely from it.
And this method of questioning and answers
ing to one’s self, imitates the quick emotions
of a passion in its birth. For in common
conversation, when people are questioned,
they are warmed at once, and answer the de-
mands put to them with earnestness and
truth. And thus this Figure of Question and
Answer is of wonderful efficacy in prevailing
upon the hearer, and imposing on him a be-
lief, that those things, which are studied and
laboured, are uttered without premeditation,
in the heat and fluency of discourse.—| What
follows here is the beginning of a sentence
now maimed and imperfect, but it is evident,
from the few words yet remaining, that the
Author was going to add another instance of

the use of this Figure from Herodotus.] * *
* * * * * * * * * * *
ak * * * * * * * * *

PHROLION ATK:

* * * * * *

(The beginning of this
Section is lost, but the sense is easily sup-
plied from what immediately follows.) An-

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 139

other great help inattaining grandeur, is ba-
-nishing the Copulatives ata proper season.
For sentences, artfully divested of Conjunc-
tions, drop smoothly down, and the periods
are poured along in such a manner, that they
seem to outstrip the very thought of the
speaker. +“ ‘Then (says Xenophon*) closing

1“'The want of a scrupulous connexion draws things into a
lesser compass, and adds the greater spirit and emotion.—For
the more rays are collected in a point, the more vigorous is the
flame. Hence there is yet greater emphasis, when the rout of
an army is shewn in the same contracted manner, as in the
24th of the Odyssey, 1.610, which has some resemblance to
Sallust’s description of the same thing, agreeable to his usual
conciseness, in these four words only, sequi, fugere, occidt,
capi.” — Essay on the Odyssey, p. 2d, 113,

Voltaire has endeavoured to shew the hurry and confusion
of a battle, in the same manner, in the Henriade. Chant. 6.

Frangois, Anglois, Lorrains, que la fureur assemble,
_ Avancoient, combattoient, frappoient, mouroient ensemble.
The hurry and distraction of Dido’s spirits, at Aineas’s de-
parture, is visible from the abrupt and precipitate manner in
which she commands her servants to endeavour to stop him:

Ite,
Ferte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos.

Aneid. II.

Haste, haul my galleys out ; pursue the foe ;
Bring flaming brands, set sail, and quickly row.
Dryden.

* Rerum Grec. p. 219, ed. Oxon, et in Orat. de Agesil.

k 2

140 LONGINUS-ON THE SUBLIME.

their shields together, they were pushed, they
fought, they slew, they were slain.” So Eu-
rylochus in Homer :*

We went, Ulysses! (such was thy command)
Through the lone thicket, and the desert land ;

A palace ina woody vale we found,

Brown with dark forests, and with shades around.

Mr. Pope.

For words of this sort dissevered from one
another, and yet uttered at the same time
with precipitation, carry with them the energy
and marks of a consternation, which at once
restrains and accelerates the words. So skil-
fully has Homer rejected the Conjunctions.

°

SECTION XX.

>

Bur nothing so effectually moves, as a
heap of Figures combined together. * For

* Odyss. x. ver. 251.

1 Amongst the various and beautiful instances of an assem-
blage of figures, which may be produced, and which so fre-
quently occur in the best writings, one, [ believe, has hitherto
not been taken notice of; I mean the four last verses of the
24th Psalm.

‘* Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye ever-
lasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 141

when two or three are linked together in firm
confederacy, they communicate strength,
efficacy, and beauty to one another. So in
Demosthenes’ oration * against Midias, the
Asyndetons are blended and mixed together
with the repetitions and lively description.

“There are several turns in the gesture, in the

look, in the voice of the man, who does vio-
lence to another, which it is impossible for
the party that suffers such violence, to ex-
press.” And that the course of his oration
might not languish or grow dull by a further
progress in the same track (for calmness and
sedateness attend always upon order, but the
Pathetic always rejects order, because it
throws the soul into transport and emotion),
he passes immediately to new Asyndetons

the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord
mighty in battles. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye
lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come
in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts: he is
the King of glory !”

There are innumerable instances of this kind in the poetical
parts of Scripture, particularlyin the Song of Deborah (Judges,
chap. ¥.) and the Lamentation of David over Saul and Jona-
than, (2 Samuel, chap. i.) There is scarce one thought in
them, which is not figured ; nor one Figure which is not beau-
tful.

* Pag. 337. ed, Par.

142 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

and fresh repetitions ‘in the gesture, in
the look, in the voice—when like a ruffian,
when likean enemy, when with his fist, when
on the face.” —The effect of these words upon
his judges, is that of the blows of him who
made the assault ; the strokes fall thick upon
one another, and their very souls are subdued
by so violent an attack. Afterwards, he
charges again with all the force and impetuo-
sity of hurricanes: ‘* When with his fist,
when on the face.”’—* These things affect,
these things exasperate men unused to such
outrages. Nobody, in giving a reeital of
these things, can express the heinousness of
them.” By frequent variation, he every
where preserves the natural force of his Repe-
titions and Asyndetons, so that with him order
seems always disordered, and disorder carries
with it a surprising regularity.

SECTION XXI.

To illustrate the foregoing observation, let
us imitate the style of Isocrates, and insert
the Copulatives in this passage, wherever they
may seem requisite. ‘ Nor indeed is one
observation to be omitted, that he who com-

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 143

mits violence on another, may do many
things, §-c.—/irst in his gesture, then in his
countenance, and ¢hirdly in his voice, which,”
gc. And if you proceed to insert the Gare
junctions, ‘you will find, that, by smoothing
the roughness, and filling up the breaks by
such additions, what was before forcibly, sur-_
prisingly, irresistibly pathetical, will lose all
its energy and spirit, will have all its fire im-
mediately extinguished. ‘To bind the limbs
of racers, is to deprive them of active motion
and the power of stretching. In like manner,
the Pathetic, when embarrassed and entan-
gled in the bonds of Copulatives, cannot sub-
sist without difficulty. It is quite deprived
of liberty in its race, and divested of that
impetuosity, by which it strikes the very in-
stant it is discharged.

1 No writer ever made a less use of Copulatiyes than St.
Paul. His thoughts poured in so fast upon him, that he had
no leisure to knit them together, by the help of particles, but
has by that means given them weight, spirit, energy, and strong
significance. An instance of it may be seen in 2 Corinth.
chap. vi. From ver, 4, to 10, is but one sentence, of near
thirty different members, which are all detached from one an-
other; and if the Copulatives be inserted after the Isocratean’
manner, the strength will be quite impaired, and the sedate
grandeur of the whole grow flat and heavy.

144 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

SECTION . XXII.

Hypersatons also are to be ranked
among the serviceable Figures. An Hyper-
baton * is a transposing of words or thoughts

:

1 Virgil is very happy in his application of this Figure.

Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus.

Aineid. 1. i. ver. 348.
And again,

Me, me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite ferrum.
Id. lib. ix. ver. 427.

In both these instances, the words are removed out of their
right order into an irregular disposition, which is a natural con-
sequence of disorder in the mind,— Dr Pearce.

There is a fine Hyperbaton in the 5th book of Paradise Lost;

Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds: pleasant the sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flow’r,
Glist’rmg with dew: fragrant the fertile earth
After soft show’rs: and sweet the coming on

OF grateful evening mild: then silent night,
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heav’n, her starry train.

_ But neither breath of morn, when she ascends,
With charms of earliest birds: nor herb, fruit, flow’r,
Glist’ring with dew: nor fragrance after show’rs :
Nor grateful ev’ning mild: nor silent night,.
With this her solemn bird: nor walk by noon,
Or glitt’ring starlight, without thee is sweet.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 145

out of their natural and grammatical order,
and itis a figure stamped as it were with the
truest image of a most forcible passion.*
When men are actuated either by wrath, or
fear, or indignation, or jealousy, or any of
those numberless passions incident to the
mind, which cannot be reckoned up, they
fluctuate here, and there, and every where ;
are still upon forming new resolutions, and
breaking through measures before concerted,
without any apparent reason: still unfixed
and undetermined, their thoughts are in per-
petual hurry; till, tossed as it were by some
unstable blast, they sometimes return to their
first resolution: so that, by this flux and re-
flux of passion, they alter their thoughts,
their language, and their manner of expres-
sion, a thousand times. Hence it comes to
pass, that’ an imitation of these transposi-

* Longinus here, in-explaining the nature of the Hyperbaton,
and again in the close of the Section, has made use of an Hy-
perbaton, or (to speak more truly) of a certain confused and
more extensive compass of a sentence. Whether he did this
by accident, or design, I cannot determine; though Le Fevre
thinks it a piece of art in the Author in order to adapt the dic- -
tion to the subject.— Dr. Pearce.

5 'This fine remark may be illustrated by a celebrated passage
in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where the poet’s art has hit off the

146 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

tions gives the most celebrated writers the
greatest resemblance of the mward workings
of nature. For art may then be termed per-

strongest and most exact resemblance of nature. The beha-
viour of his mother makes such impression on the young prince,
that his mind is big with abhorrence of it, but expressions fail
him. He begins abruptly ; but as reflections crowd thick up-
on his mind, he runs off into commendations of his father.
Some time after his thoughts turn again on that action of his
mother, which had raised his resentments, but he only touches
it, and flies off again. In short, he takes up nineteen lines in
telling us, that his mother married again in less than two months
after her husband’s death :— —

But two months dead! nay not so much, not two
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr ; so loving to my mother,
"That he permitted not the winds of heav’n

Visit her face too roughly! Heav’n and earth!
Must I remember ?—why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: yet within a month—

Let me not think—Frailty, thy name is woman !—
A little month—or ere those shoes were old,

With whieh she follow’d my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears—why she, ev’n she:
Oh Heavwn! a beast that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer—married with mine uncle,
My father’s brother ; but no more like my father,

Than Ito Hercules! Within a month!

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing of her galled eyes,

She married! Oh most wicked speed!

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 147

fect and consummate, when it seems to be
nature: and nature then succeeds best, when
she conceals what assistance she receives
from art.

In Herodotus,* Dionysius the Phocean
speaks thus in a Transposition: * For our
affairs are come to their crisis; now is the
important moment, LIonians, to secure your
liberty, or to undergo that cruelty and op-
pression which is the portion of slaves, nay,
fugitive slaves. Submit yourselves then to
toil and labour for the present. This toil and
labour will be of no long continuance: it will
defeat your enemies, and guard your free-
dom.” ‘The natural order was this: * O Io-
nians, now is the time to submit to toil and
labour, for your affairs are come to their
crisis,” §c. But as he transposed the saluta-
tion, Jonians, and after having thrown them
into consternation, subjoins it; it seems as if
fright had hindered him, at setting out, from
paying due civility to his audience. In the
next place, he inverts the order of the thoughts.
Before he exhorts them to “ submit to toil and
labour,” (for that is the end of his exhorta-
tion) he mentions the reason why labour and

* Herod. 1.6... 11.

1448 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

toil must be undergone. ‘“ Your affairs (says
he) are come to their crisis,’—so. that his
words seem not premeditated, but to be
forced’ unavoidably from him.

But 'Phucydides is still more of a perfect
master in that. surprising dexterity of trans-
posing and inverting the order of those
things, which seem naturally united and in-
separable. Demosthenes, indeed, attempts not
this so often as Thucydides, yet he is more
discreetly liberal of this kind of Figure than
any other writer. *He seems to invert the

4The eloquence of St. Paul, in most of his speeches and
argumentations, bears a very great resemblance to that of De-
mosthenes, as described in this Section by Longinus. Some
Important point being always uppermost in his view, he ofien
Teaves his subject, and flies from it with brave irregularity, and
as unexpectedly again returns to his subject, when one would
imagine that he had entirely lost sight of it. For instance, in his
defence before King Agrippa, Acts, chap. xxvi. when, in order
to wipe off the aspersions thrown upon him by the Jews, that
‘he was a turbulent and seditious person,” he sets out with
clearing his character, proving the integrity of his morals, and
his inoffensive unblameable behaviour, as one who hoped, by
those means, to attain that happiness of anotber life, for which
the ‘twelve tribes served God continually m the temple ;” on
a sudden he drops the continuation of his defence, and cries out,
«Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that
God should raise the dead?” [t might be reasonably expected,
that thiswould be the end of his argument; but by flying te

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 149

very order of his discourse, and, what is more,

to utter every thing extempore ; so that by
means of his long Transpositions he drags his
readers along, and conducts them through all
the intricate mazes of his discourse: frequent-
ly arresting his thoughts in the midst of their
career, he makes excursions into different sub-
jects, and intermingles several seemingly un-
necessary incidents: by this means he gives
his audience a kind of anxiety, as if he had
lost his subject, and forgotten what he was
about ; and so strongly engages their concern,
that they tremble for, and bear their share in,
the dangers of the speaker: at length, after
a long ramble, he very pertinently, but un-
expectedly, returns to his subject, and raises
the surprise and admiration of all, by these
daring, but happy Transpositions. The plenty —
of examples, which every where occur in his
orations, will be my excuse for giving no par-
ticular instance.

it, in so quick and unexpected a transition, he catches his au-
dience before they are aware, and strikes dumb his enemies,
though they will not be convinced, And this poimt being once
carried, he comes about again as unexpectedly, by, “ I verily
thought,” &c. and goes on with his defence, tll it brings him
again to the same point of the resurrection, in ver. 23.

150 LONGINUS ON THE-SUBLIMBE.

.

SECTION XXII.

Tuose Figures, which are called * Polyp-
totes, as also * Collections, * Changes, and

+ “ Polyptotes.” |] Longinus gives no instance of this Figure :
but one may be produced from Cicero’s oration for Celius,
where he says, ‘“‘ We will contend with arguments, we will
refute accusations by evidences brighter than light itself : fact
shall engage with fact, cause with cause, reason with reason.”

"Yo which may be added that of Virgil, Ain, lib. x. ver. 361.

—Heret pede pes, densusque viro vir.—
Dr. Pearce.

2 Collections.”] The orator makes use of this Figure,
when, instead of the whole of a thing, he numbers up all its
particulars : of which we have an instance in Cicero’s oration
for Marcellus: “ The. centurion has no share in this honour,
the lieutenant none, the cohort none, the troop none.” If Ci-
cero had said, ‘‘ The soldiers have no share in this honour,”
this would have declared his meaning, but not the force of the
speaker. See also Quinctilian, Instit. Orat.1. vil. c. 2. de
congerie verborum ac sententiarum idem significantium,—
Dr. Pearce.

3 «¢ Changes.” ] Quinctilian gives an instance of this Figure,
Instit. Orat. 1. ix. c. 3, from Cicero’s oration for Sex. Ros-
eius : “ For though he is master of so much art, as to seem
the only person alive who is fit to appear upon the stage; yet
he is possessed of such noble qualities, that he seems to be the
only man alive who may seem worthy never toappear there.”

Dr. Pearce.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 151

*Gradations, are (as you know, niy friend)
well adapted to emotion, and serviceable in
adorning, and rendering what we say, in all
respects, more grand and affecting. And to
what an amazing degree do ° Changes either
of Time, Case, Person, Number, Gender, di-
versify and enliven the style!

As to Change of Numbers, I assert, that in
words singular in form may be discerned all
the vigour and efficacy of plurals, and that
such singulars are highly ornamental.

© Along the shores an endless crowd appear,
Whose noise, and din, and shouts, confound the ear.

4“ Gradations,””] There is an mstance of this Figure in
Rom. v. It is continued throughout the chapter, but the
branches of the latter part appear not plainly, because of the
Transpositions. It begins ver. 1. ‘“* Therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus
Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God,
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowmg
that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience ;
and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed ; be-
cause,” &c. Xe.

5 Changes of Case and Gender fall not under the district of
the English tongue. On those of Time, Person, and Number,
Longinus enlarges in the sequel.

6The beauty of this Figure will, I fear, be lost in the transla-
tion. But it must be observed, that the word crowd, is of the
singular, and appear, of the plural number. Allowance must

152 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. !

But plurals are most worthy of remark, be-
cause they impart a greater magnificence to
the style, and by the copiousness of number
give it more emphasis and grace. So the words
of Qidipus in Sophocles ;*

———- Oh! nuptials, nuptials !

You first produc’d, and since our fatal birth

Have mix’d our blood, and all our race confounded,
Blended in horrid and mcestuous bonds!

See! fathers, brothers, sons, a dire alliance!

See! sisters, wives, and mothers! all the names
That e’er from lust or incest could arise.

All these terms denote on the one side
QCidipus only, and on the other Jocasta. But
the number thrown into the plural, seems to
multiply the misfortunes of that unfortunate
pair. So another poet has made use of the
saine method of increase,

Then Hectors and Sarpedons issued forth.

Of this Figure is that expression of Plato
concerning the Athenians, quoted by me in
my other writings. “ For neither do the
Pelops’s, nor the Cadmus’s, nor the Augyp-

be made in such cases; for when the genius of another lan-
guage will not retain it, the original beauty must unavoida-
bly fly off.

* CEdip. Tyran. ver. 1417.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 153

tus’s, nor the Danaus’s, dwell here with us,
nor indeed any others of barbarous descent ;
but we ourselves, Grecians entirely, not hav-
ing our blood debased by barbarian mix-
tures, dwell here alone,’ &c. *When the
words are thus confusedly thrown into mul-
titudes, one upon another, they excite in us
greater and more elevated ideas of things.
Yet recourse is not. to be had to this Figure
on all occasions, but then only when the sub-
ject will admit of an Amplification, an En-
largement, Hyperbolé, or Passion, either one
or more. 7’ For to hang such trappings to
every passage is highly pedantic.

* Plato Menexeno, p. 245. ed. Par.

7“ For to hang such trappings,” &c.] I have given this
passage such a turn as, I hope, will clear the meaning to an
English reader. ‘The literal translation is, “ For hanging the
bells every where savours too much of the sophist or pedant.”
The metaphor is borrowed from a custom among the ancients,
who, at public games and concourses, were used to hang little
bells (cwdwvac) on the bridles and trapping of their horses, that
their continual chiming might add pomp to the solemnity.

The robe or ephod of the high-priest, in the Mosaic dispen-
sation, had this ornament of bells, though another reason, be-
sides the pomp and dignity of the sound, is alleged for it in
Exodus xxvill. 33.

154 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

SECTION XXIV.

On the contrary also, plurals reduced and
contradicted into singulars, have sometimes
much grandeur and magnificence. ** Be-
sides, all Peloponnesus was at that time rent
into factions.”"* And, “ At the representa-
tion of Phrynicus’s tragedy, called, The Siege
of Miletus,* the whole theatre was melted

1 ¢¢ Besides, all Peloponnesus.””|] Instead of, “ all the in-
habitants of Peloponnesus were at that time rent into factions.”

St. Paul makes use of this figure, jointly with a change of
person, on several occasions, and with different views. In
Rom. vii. to avoid the direct charge of disobedience on the
whole body of the Jews, he transfers the discourse into the
first person, and so charges the insufficiency and frailty of all
his countrymen on himself, to guard against the invidiousness
which an open accusation might have drawn upon him. See
yer. 9—25. |

* Demosth. Orat. de Corona, p. 17.ed. Oxon.

2 « The whole theatre.”] Instead of, “ all the people in
the theatre.” Miletus was a city of Ionia, which the Per-
sians besieged and took. Phrynicus, a tragic poet, brought
a play on the stage about the demolition of this city. But the
Athenians (as Herodotus informs us) fined him a thousand
drachme, for ripping open afresh their domestic sores; and
published an edict, that no one should ever after write on that
subject. Dr. Pearce.

Shakespeare makes a noble use of this Figure, in the fol-

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 155

into tears.”"* For uniting thus one complete
number out of several distinct, renders a dis-
course more nervous and solid. But the
beauty, in each of these figures, arises from
the same cause, which is the unexpected
change of a word into its opposite number.
For when singulars occur unexpectedly to
multiply them into plurals, and by a sudden
and unforeseen change, to contract plurals
into one singular sounding and emphatical,
is the mark of a pathetic speaker.

SECTION XXV

WueEN you introduce things past as actu-
ally present, and in the moment of action, you
no longer relate, but display, the very action

lowing lines from his Antony and Cleopatra, though in the
close, there is a very strong dash of the Hyperbolé: .

-—-The city cast
Her people out upon her, and Antony
Enthron’d 7’th’ market-place, did sit alone
Whistling to th’ air; which but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,

And made a gap in nature,
* Herod. ing@ac, 21.

- 2

156 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

before the eyes of your readers. “1A soldier
(says Xenophon*) falls down under Cyrus’s
horse, and being trampled under foot, wounds
him in the belly with his sword. ‘The horse,
impatient of the wound, flings about, and
throws off Cyrus. He falls to the ground.”
Thucydides very frequently makes use of this
Figure.

SECTION XXVI.

CHANGE of persons has also a wonderful
effect, in setting the very things before our
eyes, and making the hearer think himself
actually present and concerned in dangers,

1 So Virgil, AEn. 1, xi. ver. 637.

Orsilochus Romuli, quando ipsum horrebat adire,
Hastam intorsit equo, ferrumque sub aure reliquit.
~ Quo sonipes ictu furit arduus, altaque jactat
Vulneris impatiens adrecto pectore crura.
Volvitur ille excussus humi.

By making use. of the present tense, Virgil makes the reader
see almost with his eyes, the wound of the horse, and the fall
of the warrior. Dr. Pearce.

* Xenophon de Cyri Institut. |. 7.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 157

when he is only attentive to a recital of
them.

No force could vanquish them, thou would’st have thought,
No toil fatigue, so furiously they fought.*

And so Aratus,-

O put not thou to sea in that sad month !!

And this passage of Herodotus :{ ‘ You shall
sail upwards from the city Elephantina, and
at length you will arrive upon a level coast.
—After you have travelled over this tract of
land, you shall go on board another ship, and
sail two days, and then you will arrive at a
great city, called Meroe.” You see, my

* Tliad. o. ver. 698. + Arati Phenom. ver. 287.

Virgil supplies another instance of the efficacy of this
figure, in the Ain, |. viii. ver. 689.

Una omnes ruere, ac totum spumare reductis
Convolsum remis rostrisque tridentibus equor.
Alta petunt: pelago credas innare revolsas
Cycladas, aut montes concurrere montibus altos.

The allusions in the last two lines prodigiously heighten and
exalt the subject. So Tasso describes the horror of a battle
very pompously, in his Gierusalemme Liberata. Canto Qno.

horror, la crudelta, la tema, il lutto
Van d’intorno scorrendo: et in varia imago
Vincitrice la morte errar per tutto

Vedresti, et andeggiar di sangue un lago.

{ Herod. 1, 2. c. 29.

158 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

friend, how he carries your imagination along
with him in this excursion! how he conducts
it through the different scenes, making even
hearing sight! And all such passages, di-
rectly addressed to the hearers, make them
fancy themselves actually present in every
occurrence. But when you address your dis-
course, not in general to all, but to one in
particular, as here,*

* You could not see, so fierce Tydides rag’d,

Whether for Greece or Ilion he engag’d -——
Mr. Pope.

By this address, you not only strike more
upon his passions, but fill him with a more
earnest attention, and a more anxious impa-
tience for the event.

* Tliad. «. ver. 85.

2 Solomon’s words, in Prov. vill, 34, bear some resem-
blance, in the Transition, to this instance from Homer: “ She
crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in of
the doors—Unto you, O men, | call, and my voice is to the
sons of men.”—Dr, Pearce.

There is also an example of it in St. Luke, v, 14. “ And

he commanded him to tell no man, but Go, shew thyself

to the priest.”

And another more remarkable, in Psalm cxxviii.2. ‘ Bless-
ed are all they that fear the Lord, and walk in his ways—For
thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands. Oh! well is thee,
and happy shalt thou be !”

LONGINUS ON .THE SUBLIME. 159

SECTION XXVII.

SOMETIMES When a writer is saying any
thing of a person, he brings him in, by a sud-
den ‘Transition, to speak for himself. This fi-
gure produces a vehement and lively Pathetic.

1 Now Hector, with loud voice, renew’d their toils,
Bade them assault the ships and leave the spoils ;
But whom I find at distance from the fleet,

He from this vengeful arm his death shall meet.*

That part of the narration, which he could

1 There is a celebrated and masterly transition of this kind,
in the 4th book of Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Thus at their shady lodge arriv’d, both stood,

Both turn’d, and under open sky ador’d

The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heav’n,
Which they beheld, the moon’s resplendent globe
And starry pole—Thou also mad’st the night,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the day.

Mr. Addison observes, ‘¢ That most of the modern heroic
poets have imitated the ancients, in beginning a speech, with-
out premising that the person said thus, or thus; but as it is
easy to imitate the ancients in the omission of two or three
words, it requires judgment to do it in such a manner as they
shall not be missed, and that the speech may begin naturally
without them.”-—~Spectator, No. 321.

* Thad. o. ver. 346,

160 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

go through with decently, the poet here as-
sumes to himself, but, without any previous
notice, claps this abrupt menace into the
mouth of his angry hero. How flat must it
have sounded, had he stopped to put in,
Hector spoke thus, or thus? But now the
quickness of the Transition outstrips the very
thought of the poet.

Upon which account this figure is then
most seasonably applied, when the pressing
exigency of time will not admit of any stop
or delay, but even enforces a transition from
persons to persons, as in this passage of * He-
catzeus : “ Ceyx, very much troubled at these
proceedings, immediately commanded all the
descendants of the Heraclidz to depart his
territories—For I am unable to assist you.
To prevent therefore your own destruction,
and not to involve me in your ruin, go seek a
retreat amongst another people.”

> Demosthenes has made use of this Figure

2 ¢ Hlecateus.”] He means Hecateus the Milesian, the
first of the historians, according to Suidas, who wrote in
prose.— Langbaine.

3 “ Demosthenes has made use,” &c.] Reading here in the
original ov instead of 0, a very small alteration due to the sa-
gacity of Dr. Tonstal, clearly preserves the sense. For un-
doubtedly Demosthenes makes use of a Transition in the

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 161

4

in a different manner, and with much more
passion and volubility, in his oration against
Aristogiton :* “ And shall not one among you
boil with wrath, when the iniquity of this in-
solent and profligate wretch is laid before
your eyes? This insolent wretch, I say, who
Thou most abandoned creature! when
excluded the liberty of speaking, not by bars
or gates, for these indeed some other might.
have burst.”—The thought is here left imper-
fect and unfinished, and he almost tears his
words asunder to address them at once to dif-
ferent ‘persons; “ Who—Thou most aban-
doned creature!” Having diverted his dis-
course from Aristogiton, and seemingly left
him, he turns again upon him, ‘and attacks

same manner with Homer and Hecateus. I would therefore
translate it thus—‘*‘ Demosthenes hath also made use of this
figure, not truly in a different manner, but with much more
passion and volubility.”

* Orat. prima in Aristog. p. 486. ed. Paris.

*¢ And attacks him afresh,” &c.] ‘This figure is very art-
fully used by St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans. His
drift is to shew, that the Jews were uot the people of God,
exclusive of the gentiles, and had no more reason than they,
to form such high pretensions, since they had been equally
guilty of violating the moral law of God, which was antece-
dent to the Mosaic, and of eternal obligation. Yet, not to
exasperate the Jews at setting out, and so render them averse

162 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.
him afresh with more violent strokes of heat
and passion. So Penelope in Homer,*

5 The lordly suitors send! But why must you
Bring baneful mandates from that odious crew ?

to all the arguments he might afterwards produce, he begins
with the gentiles, and gives a black catalogue of all their vices,
which (in reality were, as well as) appeared excessively heinous
in the eyes of the Jews, till, in the beginning of the second
chapter, he unexpectedly turns upon them with, “ Therefore
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that judg-
est,” ver. 1. and again, ver. 3. “ And thinkest thou this, O
man, that judgest them which do such things, and dost the
same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” &c. &e.
If the whole be read with attention, the apostle’s art will be
found surprising, his eloquence will appear grand, his strokes
cutting, the attacks he makes on the Jews successive, and
rising in their strength.

* Odyss. 6. ver. 681.

5 Jn these verses Penelope, after she had spoken of the suit-
ors in the third person, seems on a sudden exasperated at their
proceedings, and addresses her discourse to them as if they
were present.

Why thus, ungen’rous men, devour my son? &c.

To which passage in Homer, one in Virgil bears great re-
semblance, AEn. ii. ver. 708.

Hic pelagi tot tempestatibus actus,
Heu! genitorem, omnis cure casusque levamen,
Amitto Anchisen; hic me, pater optime, fessum
Deseris, heu! tantis nequicquam erepte periclis.
As does a passage also in the poetical book of Job, chap.
XV1. ver. 7, where, after he had said of God, “ But now he hath

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 163

What! must the faithful servants of my lord —
Forego their tasks for them to crown the board?
I scorn their love, and I detest their sight ;

And may they share their last of feasts to-night!
Why thus, ungen’rous men, devour my son?
Why riot thus, till he be quite undone?
Heedless of him, yet timely hence retire,

And fear the vengeance of his awful sire,

Did not your fathers oft his might commend?
And children you the wondrous tale attend?
That injur’d hero you return’d may see,

Think what he was, and dread what he may be.

SECTION XXVIII.

Tuat a Periphrasis (or Circumlocution) is
a cause of Sublimity, nobody, I think, can
deny. For as in music an important word
is rendered more sweet, by the divisions
which are run harmoniously upon it; so a
Periphrasis sweetens a discourse carried on in
propriety of language, and contributes very
much to the ornament of it, especially if
there be no jarring or discord in it, but every
part be judiciously and musically tempered.

made me weary,” by a sudden ‘Transition, he addresses his
speech to God in the words immediately following, “ Thou
hast made desolate all my company.””-—Dr. Pearce.

164 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

This may be established beyond dispute from
a passage of Plato, in the beginning of his Fu-
neral Oration: ‘**We have now discharged
the last duties we owe to these our departed
friends, who, thus provided, make the fatal
voyage. ‘They have been conducted pub-

1 Archbishop Tillotson will afford us an instance of the use
of this Figure, on the same thought almost as that quoted by
Longinus from Plato.

“When we consider that we have but a little while to be
here, that we are upon our journey travelling towards our hea-
venly country, where we shall meet with all the delights we can
desire, it ought not to trouble us much to endure storms and
foul ways, and to want many of those accommodations we
might expect at home. This is the common fate of travellers,
and we must take things as we find them, and not look to have
every thing just to our mind. ‘These difficulties and incon-
veniences will shortly be over, and after a few days will be quite
forgotten, and be to us as though they had never been, And
when we are safely landed in our own country, with what plea-
sure shall we look back on these rough and boisterous seas we
have escaped ?”—1st Vol. p. 98, folzo.

In each passage Death is the principal thought to which all
the circumstances of the Circumlocutions chiefly refer ; but
the Archbishop has wound it up to a greater height, and tem-
pered it with more agreeable and more extensive sweetness.
Plato inters his heroes, and then bids them adieu; but the
Christian orator conducts them to a better world, from whence
he gives them a retrospect of that through whieh they have
passed, to enlarge the comforts, and give them a higher enjoy-
ment of the future.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 165

licly on their way by the whole body of the
city, and in a private capacity by their pa-
rents and relations.” Here he calls Death
“‘ the fatal voyage,” and discharging the fu-
neral offices, a public conducting of them by
their country. And who can deny that the
sentiment by this means is very much exalt-
ed? or that Plato, by infusing a melodious
Circumlocution, has tempered a naked and
barren thought with harmony and sweetness ?
So Xenophon :* “ You look upon toil as the
guide to a happy life. Your souls are pos-
sessed of the best qualification that can adorna
martial breast. Nothing produces in you such
sensible emotions of joy as commendation.”
By expressing an inclination to endure toil
in this Circumlocution, “ You look upon la-
bour as the guide to a happy life ;” and by en-
larging some other words after the same man-
ner, he has not only exalted the sense, but given
new grace to his encomium. So that inimi-
table passage of Herodotus ; ‘* The goddess
afflicted those Scythians, who had sacrilegi-

ously pillaged her temple with? the female
disease.”

* Xenophon. Cyroped. lib. 1.
t+ Herod. 1. 1.c. 105.

* The beauty of this Periphrasis, which Longinus so highly

166 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

SECTION XXIX.

*CrRCUMLOCUTION is indeed more dan-
gerous than any other kind of figure, unless
it be used with great circumspection ; it is
otherwise very apt to grow trifling and insi-
pid, and savour strongly of pedantry and
dulness. For this reason, Plato (though for
the generality superior to all in his figures,
yet being sometimes too lavish of them) is ri-
diculed very much for the following expres-

commends, appears not at present. Commentators indeed
have laboured hard to discover what this disease was, and
abundance of remarks, learned and curious to be sure, have
been made upon it. The best way will be to imitate the de-
corum of Herodotus, and leave it still a mystery.

1 « Circumlocution is indeed,” &c.] Shakespeare, in
King Richard the Second, has made sick John of Gaunt pour
out such a multitude to express England, as never was, nor
ever will be met with again. Some of them indeed sound very
finely, at least, in the ears of an Englishman: for instance,

This royal throne of kings, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy paradise,

This fortress built by nature for herself
Against infection in the hand of war; _
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 167

sion in his Treatise of Laws :* “It is not to
be permitted, that wealth of either gold or
silver should get footing or settle in a city.”
Had he, say the critics, forbidden the pos-
session of cattle, he might have called it the
wealth of mutton and beef.

And now, what has been said on this sub-
ject, will, I presume, my dear TERENTIANUS,
abundantly shew, of what service Figures
may be in producing the Sublime. or it is
manifest, that all I have mentioned render
compositions more pathetic and affecting.
For the Pathetic partakes as much of the
Sublime, as writing exactly in rule and cha-
racter can do of the Agreeable.

CARE AY.

———

SHOTION XXX.

Bur since the sentiments and the language
of compositions are generally best explained
by the light they throw upon one another,

* Plato de Legibus, |. 5. p. 741. ed. Par.

168 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

let us in the next place consider, what it is
that remains to be said concerning the Dic-
tion. And here, that a judicious choice of
proper and magnificent terms has wonderful
effects. in winning upon and entertaining an
audience, cannot, I think, be denied. For
it is from hence, that the greatest writers de-
rive with indefatigable care the grandeur, the
beauty, thesolemnity, the weight, thestrength,
and the energy of their expressions. This
clothes a composition in the most beautiful
dress, makes it shine like a picture in all the
gaiety of colour, and, in a word, it animates
our thoughts, and inspires them with a kind
of vocal life. But it is needless to dwell upon
these particulars, before persons of so much
taste and experience. Fine words are indeed
the peculiar light in which our thoughts must
shine. But then it is by no means proper
that they should every where swell and look
big. For dressing up a trifling subject in
grand exalted expressions, makes the same
ridiculous appearance, as the enormous mask
of a tragedian would do upon the diminutive
face of an infant. Butin poetry * * * * * *
[The remainder of this Section is lost.] * * *

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 169

SECTION XXXII.

as oe | The beginning of this Sec:
tion is lost.] * * In this verse of Anacreon,
the terms are vulgar, yet there is a simpli-
city in it which pleases, because it is natural :

Nor shall this Thracian vex me more !#

And for this reason, that celebrated expres-
sion of 'Theopompus seéms to me the most sig-
nificant of any I ever met with, though Ceci-
lius has found something to blame in it—
‘< Philip (says he) was used to swallow affronts,
in compliance with the exigencies of his
affairs.”

* Vulgar terms are sometimes much more

- 1 There never was a line of higher grandeur, or more ho- >
nourable to human nature, expressed at the same time in
a greater plainness and simplicity of terms, than the following,
in the Essay on Man—

An honest man’s the noblest work of God.

* Images, drawn from common life, or familiar objects, stand
in need of a deal of judgment to support and keep them from
sinking, but have a much better effect, and are far more ex-
pressive, when managed by a skilful hand, than those of a
higher nature; the truth of this remark is visible from these
lines in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet :—

M

-}70 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

significant than the most ornamental could
possibly be. ‘They are easily understood, be-~

[ would have thee gone ;

And yet no further than a wanton’s bird,
That lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread pulls it back again,
So loving jealous of its liberty.

Mr. Addison has made use of an Image of a lower nature
in his Cato, where the tover cannot part with his mistress with-
eut the highest regret ; as the lady could not with her lover in
the former instance from Shakespeare. He has touched it
with equal delicacy and grace : »

Thus o’er the dying lamp, th’ unsteady flame
‘Hangs quiv’ring to a point ; leaps off by fits,
And falls again, as loath to quit its hold.

I have ventured to give these instances of the beauty and
strength of Images taken from low and common objects, be-
cause what the Critic says of Terms, holds equally in regard to
Images. An expression is not the worse for being obvious
and familiar, for a judicious application gives it new dignity
and strong significance. All Images and Words are dangerous
to such as want genius and spirit. By their management,
grand Words and Images, improperly thrown together, sink
into burlesque and sounding nonsense, and the easy and fami-
liar are tortured into insipid fustian. A true genius will steer
securely in either course, and with such bold rashness on par-
ticular occasions, that he will almost touch upon rocks, yet
never receive any damage. This remark, in that part of it
which regards the Terms, may be illustrated by the following
lines of Shakespeare, spoken by Apemantus to Timon, when

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 171

caiise borrowed from common life ; and what
is most familiar to us, soonest engages our
belief. Therefore, when a person, to promote
his ambitious designs, bears ill treatment and
reproaches, not only with patience, but a
seeming pleasure, to say that he swallows af-
fronts, is as happy and expressive a phrase as
could possibly be invented. ‘The following
passage from Herodotus in my opinion comes
very near it.* ‘* Cleomenes (says he) being

he had abjured all human society, and vowed to pass the re-
mainder of his days in a desert:

What! think’st thou

That the bleak air, thy boist’rous chamberlain,

Will put thy shirt on warm? will these moist trees,
That have out-liv’d the eagle, page thy heels,

And skip when thou point’st out? will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning taste

To cure thy o’er-night’s surfeit? Call the creatures,
Whose naked natures live in all the spite

Of wreakful heav’n, whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos’d,

Answer mere nature; bid them flatter thee ;

Oh! thou shalt find

_ The whole is carried on with so much spirit, and supported
by such an air of solemnity, that it is noble and affecting.
Yet the same expressions and allusions, in inferior hands,
might have retained their original baseness, and been quite
ridiculous.

* Herodst. 6..¢. 75.

M 2

172 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

seized with madness, with a little knife that
he had, cut his flesh into small pieces, till,
having entirely mangled his body, he ex-
pired.” And again,* “ Pythes, remaining still
in the ship, fought courageously, till he was
hacked in pieces.” ‘These expressions ap-
proach near to vulgar, but are far from hav-
ing vulgar significations.

SECTION XXXII.

As to a proper number of Metaphors, Ce-
cilius has gone into their opinion, who have
settled it at two or three at most, in express-
ing the same object. But in this also, let De-
mosthenes be observed as our modeland guide;
and by him we shall find, that the proper time
to apply them, is, when the passions are so
much worked up, as to hurry on like a tor-
rent, and unavoidably carry along with them
a whole crowd of metaphors. ‘+ ‘Those

* Herod. 1.'7: ¢. 181.

1 Demosthenes, in this instance, bursts not out upon the
traitorous creatures of Philip, with such bitterness and severity ;
strikes them not dumb, with such a continuation of vehement
and cutting Metaphors ; as St. Jude some profligate wretches
in his Epistle, ver. 12, 13:—

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 178

prostituted souls, those cringing traitors, those
furies of the commonwealth, who have com-
bined to wound and mangle their country,
who have drunk up its liberty in healths, to
Philip once, and since to Alexander, measur-
ing their happiness by their belly and their
lust. As for those generous principles of
honour, and that maxim, never to endure a
master, Which to our brave forefathers were
the high ambition of life, and the standard
of felicity, these they have quite subverted.”
Here, by means of this multitude of Tropes,
the orator bursts out upon the traitors in the
warmest indignation. It is, however, the

«¢ These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast
with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are
without water, carried about of winds: trees, whose fruit
withereth, without fruit, plucked up by the roots: raging
waves of the sea, foaming out-the-own shame: wandering
stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”

By how much the bold defence of Christianity, against the
lewd practices, insatiable lusts, and impious blasphemies of
wicked abandoned men, is more glorious than the defence of a
petty state, against the intrigues of a foreign tyrant; or, by
how much more honourable and praiseworthy it is, to contend
for the glory of God and religion, than the reputation of one
republic ; by so much does this passage of the apostle exceed
that of Demosthenes, commended by Longinus, in force of
expression, liveliness of allusion, and height of Sublimity.

174 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

precept of Aristotle and Theophrastus, that
bold Metaphors ought to be introduced with
some small alleviations ; such as, if tt may be
so expressed ; and as it were, and if I may
speak with so much boldness. For this excuse,
say they, very much palliates the hardness of
the figures.

Such a rule hath a general use, and there-
fore Iadmit it; yet still I maintain, what I
advanced before in regard to Figures, that
bold * Metaphors, and those too in good
plenty, are very seasonable in a noble com-
position, where they are always mitigated
and softened, by the vehement Pathetic and
generous Sublime dispersed through the

* This remark shews the penetration of the judgment of
Longinus, and proves the propriety of the strong Metaphors
in Scripture; as when arrows are said to be “drunk with
blood,” aud a “sword to devour flesh.” (Deut. xxxii. 42.) ~
It illustrates the eloquence of St. Paul, who uses stronger,
more expressive, and more accumulated Metaphors, than any
other writer ; as when, for instance, he styles his converts,
‘¢ His joy, his crown, his hope, his glory, his crown of re-
joicing.” (Phil. i. 9.) When he exhorts them “ to put on
Christ.’ (Rom, xiii. 14.) When he speaks against the heathens,
‘* who had changed the truth of God into a lie.” (Rom. i.
25.) When against wicked men, “ whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame.”
(Phil. iii. 19.) See a chain of strong ones, Rom. iii. 13—18.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 175

whole. For as it is the nature of the Pathe-
tic and Sublime, to run rapidly along, and
carry all before them, so they require the
figures, they are worked up in, to be strong
and forcible, and do not so much as give lei-
sure to a hearer, to cavil at their number, be-
cause they immediately strike his imagina-
tion, and inflame him with all the warmth
and fire of the speaker. |

But further, in lustrations and Descrip-
tions, there is nothing so expressive and sig-
nificant, as a chain of continued Tropes. By
these has Xenophon * described, in so pom-
pous and magnificent terms, the anatomy of
the human body. By these has Plato + de-
scribed the same thing, in so unparalleled,
so Divineamanner. ‘° The head of man he

* Azopynpoy. 1. 1. c. 45. ed. Oxon.

+ Plato in Timzo passim.

3 The Allegory or chain of Metaphors that occurs in Psalm
Ixxx. 8, is no way inferior to this of Plato. The royal author
speaks thus of the people of Israel under the Metaphor of a
vine : |
“ ‘Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast east
out the heathen and planted it. Thou madest room for it, and
when it had taken root, it filled the land. The hills were
covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs. thereof were
like the goodly cedar-trees. She stretched out her branches
unto the sea, and her boughs unto the river.” —Dr. Pearce.

176 LONGINUS ON THB SUBLIME.

calls a citadel. The neck is an isthmus placed
between the head and the breast. The ver-
tebre, or joints, on which it turns, are so
many hinges. Pleasure is the bait, which
allures men to evil, and the tongue is the in-
former of tastes. The heart, being the knot

St. Paul has nobly described, in a continuation of Meta-
phors, the Christian armour, in his Epistle to the Ephesians,
chap. vi. 13, &c.

The sublime description of the horse in Job, chap. xxxix.
19—25, has been highly applauded by several writers. The
reader may see some just observations on it, in the Guardian,
No. 86. But the 29th chapter of the same book will afford as
fine instances of the beauty and energy of this figure as can any
where be met with :

‘€ Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when
God preserved me!—when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my children were about me: when I washed my steps
with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil! —When
the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw
The blessing of him that was
ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart
to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

me, it gave witness to me.

judgment was as a robe and adiadem. I was eyes to the
blind, and feet was Ito thelame, I wasa father to the poor,”
There is another beautiful use of this Figure in the latter
part of the 65th Psalm. ‘The description is lively, and what
the French call riante, or laughing. It has indeed been fre-
quently observed, that the Eastern writings abound very much
in strong Metaphors ; but in Scripture they are always sup-
ported by a ground-work of masculine and nervous strength,
_ without which they are apt to swell into ridiculous Bombast.

LONGINUS ON TILE SUBLIME. 177

of the veins, and the fountain from whence
the blood arises, and briskly circulates
through all the members, is a watch-tower
completely fortified. ‘The pores he calls nar-
row streets. And because the heart is sub-
ject to violent palpitations, either when dis-
turbed with fear of some impending evil, or
when inflamed with wrath, the gods, says he,
have provided against any ill effect that might
hence arise, by giving a place in the body to
the lungs, a soft and bloodless substance, fur-
nished with inward vacuities, like a sponge,
that whenever choler inflames the heart, the
lungs should easily yield, should gradually
break its violent strokes, and preserve it from
harm. The seat of the concupiscible pas-
sions, he has named the apartment of the wo-
men ; the seat of the irascible, the apartment
of the men. The spleen is the sponge of the
entrails, from whence, when filled with excre-
ments, it is swelled and bloated. Afterwards
(proceeds he) the gods covered all those parts
with flesh, their rampart and defence against
the extremities of heat and cold, soft through-
out like a cushion, and gently giving way to
outward impressions. ‘The blood he calls the
pasture of the flesh; and adds, that for the
sake of nourishing the remotest parts, they

178 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

opened the body into a number of rivulets,
like a garden well stocked with plenty of
canals, that the veins might by this means re-
ceive their supply of the vital moisture from
the heart, as the common source, and convey
it through all the sluices of the body. And
at the approach of death, the soul, he says, is
loosed, like a ship from her cables, and left
at the liberty of driving at pleasure.” Many
other turns of the same nature in the sequel
might be adjoined, but these already abun-
dantly shew, that the Tropes are naturally
endued with an air of grandeur, that Meta-
phors contribute very much to Sublimity,
and are of very important service in descrip-
tive and pathetic compositions.

That the use of 'Tropes, as well as of all
other things which are ornamental in dis-
course, may be carried to excess, is obvious
enough, though I should not mention it.
Hence it comes to pass, that many severely
censure Plato, because oftentimes, as if he
was mad to utter his words, he suffers him-
self to be hurried into raw undigested Meta-
phors, and a vain pomp of Allegory. ‘“ For
is it not (says he) * easy to conceive, that a

* Plato, 1.6. de Legibus, p. 773. ed. Par.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 179

city ought to resemble a goblet replenished
with a well-tempered mixture? where, when
the foaming deity of wine is poured in, it
sparkles and fumes ; but when chastised by
another more sober divinity, it joins in firm
alliance, and composes a pleasant and _pala-
table liquor.” For (say they) to call water a
sober divinity, and the mixture chastisement,
is a shrewd argument, that the author was
not very sober himself.

Cecilius had certainly these trifling flou-
rishes in view, when he had the rashness, in his
Essay on * Lysias, to declare him much pre-
ferable to Plato; biassed to it by two pas-
sions equally indiscreet. For though he
loved Lysias as well as his own self, yet he
hated Plato with more violence than he could
possibly love Lysias. Besides, he was hur-
ried on by so much heat and prejudice, as to
presume on the concession of certain points
which never will be granted. For Plato be-
ing oftentimes faulty, he thence takes occa-
sion to cry up Lysias for a faultless and con-

* Lysias was one of the ten celebrated crators of Athens.
He was a neat, elegant, correct, and witty writer, but not
sublime. Cicero calls him prope perfectum, almost perfect.

Quinctilian says he was more like a clear fountain than a great
river.

180 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

summate writer; which is so far from being
truth, that it has not so much as the shadow
of it. |

SECTION XXXII.

But let us for once admit the possibility
of a faultless and consummate writer; and
then, will it not be worth while to consider at
large that important question, Whether, in
poetry or prose, what is truly grand in the
midst of some faults, be not preferable to
that which has nothing extraordinary in its
best parts, correct however throughout, and
faultless? And further, whether the excel-
lence of fine writing consists in the number
of its beauties, or in the grandeur of its
strokes? For these points, being peculiar to
the Sublime, demand an illustration.

I readily allow, that writers of a lofty and
towering genius are by no means pure and
correct, since whatever is neat and accurate
throughout, must be exceedingly liable to
flatness. In the Sublime, as in great affluence
of fortune, some minuter articles will una-
voidably escape observation. But it is al-
most impossible for a low and _ grovelling

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 181

genius to be guilty of error, since he never
endangers himself by soaring on high, or aim-
ing at eminence, but still goes on in the same
uniform secure track, whilst its very height
and grandeur exposes the Sublime to sudden
falls. Noram [I ignorant indeed of another
thing, which will no doubt be urged, that * in
passing our judgment upon the works of an
author, we always muster his imperfections,
so that the remembrance of his faults sticks
indelibly fast in the mind, whereas that of his
excellences is quickly worn out. For my
part, I have taken notice of no inconsiderable
number of faults in Homer, and some other
of the greatest authors, and cannot by any
means be blind or partial to them ; however,
*T judge them not to be voluntary faults, so
much as accidental slips incurred through in-
advertence ; such as, when the mind is intent

1 «In passing our judgment,” &c.} So Horace, Ep. I.
u. Ep. i. 262.
Discit enim citiis meminitque libentits illud,
Quod quis deridet, quam quod probat et veneratur.
* “I judge them,” &c.} So Horace, Ars Poet. 351.
—Ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
Offendor maculis, quas aut incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit natura.

182 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

upon things of a higher nature, will creep in=
sensibly into compositions. And for this
reason I give it as my real opinion, that the
great and noble flights, ° though they cannot
-every where boast an equality of perfection,
yet ought to carry off the prize, by the sole
merit of their own intrinsic grandeur.

* Apollonius, author of the Argonautics, was
a writer without a blemish: and no one ever
succeeded better in Pastoral than Theocritus,
excepting some pieces where he has quitted
his own province. But yet, would you choose

3 «“ Though they cannot eyery where boast,” &c.] So Mr.
Pope, in the spirit of Longinus :
Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend,
And rise to faults true critics dare not mend ;
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,
And snatcha grace beyond the rules of art ;
Which, without passing through the judgment, gains

The heart, and all its end at once attains.
Essay on Criticism. —

4 Apollonius was born at Alexandria, but called a Rhodian,
because he resided at Rhodes. He was the scholar of Calli-
machus, and succeeded Eratosthenes as keeper of Ptolemy’s
library: he wrote the Argonautics, which are still extant.
Of this poet Quinctilian has thus given his judgment, Instit.
Orat. 1]. x.c. 1.‘ He published a performance, which was
not despicable, but had a certain even mediocrity through-
out.”—Dr. Pearce.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 183

to be Apollonius or Theocritus rather than
Homer? Is the poet ° Eratosthenes, whose
Erigone is a complete and delicate perform-
ance, and not chargeable with one fault, to
be esteemed a superior poet to Archilochus,
who flies off into many and brave irregulari-
ties; a godlike spirit bearing him forwards in
the noblest career, such spirit as will not bend
to rule, or easily brook control? In Lyrics,
would you sooner be ° Bacchylides than Pin- -
dar, or “Jo the Chian, than the great So-
phocles? Bacchylides and Io have written
smoothly, delicately, and correctly ; they have

° Eratosthenes the Cyrenean, scholar of Callimachus the
poet. Among other pieces of poetry, he wrote the Erigone.
He was predecessor to Apollonius, in Ptolemy’s library at
Alexandria.—Dr. Pearce.

® Bacchylides, a Greek poet, famous for lyric verse ; born
at Lulis, a town in the Isle of Ceos. He wrote the Apode-
mics, or the travels of a deity. The Emperor Julian was so
pleased with his verses, that he is said to have drawn from
thence rules for the conduct of life. And Hiero the Syra-
cusan thought them preferable even to Pindar’s, by a judg-
ment quite contrary to what is given here by Longinus.
Dr. Pearce.

7 Io the Chian, a dithyrambic poet, who, besides Odes, is
said to have composed forty fables. He is called by Aristo-
phanes, ‘The Eastern Star, because he died whilst he was
writing an Ode that began with those words.—-Dr. Pearce. .

184 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

left nothing without the nicest decoration;
but in Pindar and Sophocles, who carry fire
along with them through the violence of their
motion, that very fire is many times unsea-
sonably quenched, and then they drop most
unfortunately down. But yet no one, I am
certain, who has the least discernment, will
scruple to prefer the single * CEdipus of So-
phocles, before all that Io ever composed.

SECTION XXXIV.

Ir the beauties of writers are to be esti-
mated by their number, and not by their
quality or grandeur, then Hyperides will
prove far superior to Demosthenes. He has
more harmony and a finer cadence, he has a
greater number of beauties, and those ina
degree almost next to excellent. He resem-
bles a champion, who, professing himself
master of the five exercises, in each of them
severally must yield the superiority to others,

8 The CEdipus Tyrannus, the most celebrated tragedy of
Sophocles, which (as Dr. Pearce observes) poets of almost all
nations have endeavoured to imitate, though in my opinion
very little to their credit.

¢

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 185

but in all together stands alone and unri-
valled. For Hyperides has in every point, ex-
cept the structure of his words, imitated all
the virtues of Demosthenes, and has abun-
dantly added *the graces and beauties of
Lysias. When his subject demands simpli-
city, his style is exquisitely smooth; nor
does he utter every thing with one empha-
tical air of vehemence, like Demosthenes.
His thoughts are always just and. proper,
tempered with most delicious sweetness and
the softest harmony of words. His turns of
wit are inexpressibly fine. He raises a laugh
with the greatest art, and is prodigiously

1 «The graces—of Lysias.”] For the clearer understanding
of this passage, we must observe, that there are two sorts of
graces ; the one majestic and grave, and proper for the poets,
the other simple, and like railleries in comedy, Those of the
last sort enter into the composition of the polished style, called
by the rhetoricians yAagupoy Aoyoy ; and of this kind were
the graces of Lysias, who, in the judgment of Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, excelled in the polished style ; and for thisreason
Cicero calls him venustissimum oratorem. We lave’ one in-
stance of the giaces of this pretty orator: Speaking one day
against Auschines, who was in love with an old woman, “‘ He
is enamoured (cried he) with a lady, whose teeth may be
counted easier than her fingers.” Upon this account Deme-
trius has ranked the graces of Lysias in the same class with
those of Sophron, a farce writer.

N

Dacter.

186 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

dexterous at irony or sneer. His strokes of
raillery are far from ungenteel ; by no means
far-fetched, like those of the depraved imi-
tators of Attic neatness, but apposite and pro-
per. How skilful at evading an argument!
With what humour does he ridicule, and
with what dexterity does he sting inthe midst
of a smile! In a word, there are inimitable
graces in all he says. Never did any one
more artfully excite compassion; never was
any more diffuse in narration; never any
more dexterous at quitting and resuming his
subject with such easy address, and such
pliant activity. ‘This plainly appears in his
little poetical fables of Latona; and besides,
he has composed a funeral oration with such
pomp and ornament, as I believe never will,
or can, be equalled.

-Demosthenes, on the other side, has been
unsuccessful in representing the humours and
characters of men; he was a stranger to dif-
fusive eloquence ; awkward in his address;
void of all pomp and show in his language ;
and, ina word, for the most part, deficient
in all the qualities ascribed to Hyperides.
Where his subject compels him to be merry
or facetious, he makes people laugh, but it is
at himself. And-the more he endeavours at

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 187

raillery, the more distant is he from it. * Had
he ever attempted an oration fora Phryne

2 Hyperides, of whom mention has been made already, and
whom the Author in this Section compares with Demosthenes
was one of the ten famous orators of Athens. He was Plato’s
scholar, and thought by some to have shared with Lycurgus in
the public administration. His orations for Phryne and Athe-
nogenes were very much esteemed, though his defence of the
former owed its success to a very remarkable incident, men-
tioned by Plutarch. (Life of the ten orators, in Hyperides.)

Phryne was the most famous courtezan of that age; her
form so beautiful, that it was taken as a model for all the
statues of Venus carved at that time throughout Greece: yet
an intrigue between her and Hyperides grew so scandalous,
that an accusation was preferred against her in the court of
Athens. Hyperides defended her with all the art and rhetoric
which experience and love could teach him, and his oration
for her was as pretty and beautiful as his subject. But as
what is spoken to the ears makes not so deep an impression
as what is shewn to the eyes, Hyperides found his eloquence
unavailing, and effectually to soften the judges, uncovered the
lady’s bosom. Its snowy whiteness was an argument in her
favour not to be resisted, and therefore she was immediately
acquitted, :

Longinus’s remark is a compliment to Hyperides, but does
a secret honour to Demosthenes. Hyperides was a graceful,
genteel speaker, one that could say pretty things, divert his
audience, and when a lady was the topic, quite outshine De-
mosthenes ; whose eloquence was too grand to appear for any
thing but honour and liberty. Then he could warm, trans-
port, and triumph; could revive in his degenerate countrymen
a love of their country and a zeal for freédom; could make .

nN 2

188 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

or an Athenogenes, he would in such attempts
have only served as a foil to Hyperides.

Yet after all, in my opinion, the numer-
ous beauties of Hyperides are far from hav-
ing any inherent greatness. They shew the
sedateness and sobriety of the author’s ge-
nius, but have not force enough to enliven
or to warm an audience. . No one that reads
him, is ever sensible of extraordinary emo-
_ tion. Whereas Demosthenes, adding to a con-
tinued vein of grandeur and to magnificence
of diction (the greatest qualifications requi-
site in an orator), such lively strokes of pas-
sion, such copiousness of words, such ad- —
dress, and such rapidity of speech; and,
what is his masterpiece, such force and ve-
hemence, as the greatest writers besides durst
never aspire to; being, I say, abundantly
furnished with all these Divine (it would be
sin to. call them human) abilities, he excels
all before him in the beauties which are
really his own; and to atone for deficiencies
in those he has not, overthrows all opponents
with the irresistible force and the glittering
blaze of his lightning. For it is much easier

een oe

them cry out inrageand fury, “ Let us arm, let us away, let
us match against Philip.”

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 189

to behold, with steadfast and undazzled eyes,
the flashing lightning, than those ardent
strokes of the Pathetic, which come so thick
one upon another in his orations.

ee ee ee nee

SECTION XXXV.

Tue parallel between Plato and his oppo-
nent must be drawn in a different light. For:
Lysias not only falls short of him in the excel-
lence, but in the number also of his beauties.
And what is more, he not only falls short of
him in the number of his beauties, but ex-
ceeds him vastly in the number of his faults.

What then can we suppose that those god-
like writers had in view, who laboured so
much in raising their compositions to the
highest pitch of the Sublime, and looked
down with contempt upon accuracy and cor-
rectness?’—Amongst others, let this reason
be accepted. Nature never designed man to
be a grovelling and ungenerous animal, but
brought him into life, and placed him in the
world, as ina crowded theatre, not to be an
idle spectator, but spurred on by an eager
thirst of excelling, ardently to contend in
the pursuit of glory. For this purpose, she

190 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

implanted in his soul an invincible love of
grandeur, and a constant emulation of what-
ever seems to approach nearer to divinity
than himself. Hence it is, that the whole
universe is not sufficient for the extensive
reach and piercing speculation of the human
understanding. It passes the bounds of the
material world, and launches forth at plea-
sure into endless space. Let any one take
-an exact survey of a life, which, in its every
scene, is conspicuous on account of excel-
lence, grandeur, and beauty, and he will
soon discern for what noble ends we were
born. ‘Thus the impulse of nature inclines
us to admire, not a little clear transparent
rivulet that ministers to our necessities, but
the Nile, the Ister, the Rhine, or still much
more, the Ocean. We are never surprised
at the sight of a small fire that burns clear,
and blazes out on, our own private hearth,
but view with amaze the celestial fires, though
they are often obscured by vapours and
eclipses. * Nor do we reckon any thing

1 We have a noble description of the volcano of Aétna in
Virgil, Ain. |, iii. v. 571. which will illustrate this passage in
Longiuus : |

Horrificis juxta tonat AEtna ruinis,
Interdumque atram prorumpit ad zthera nubem,

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 191

in nature more wonderful than the boiling
furnaces of AXtna, which cast up stones,
and sometimes whole rocks, from their labour-
ing abyss, and pour out whole rivers of liquid
and unmingled flame. And from hence we
may infer, that whatever is useful and neces-
sary to man, lies level to his abilities, and is
easily acquired ; but whatever exceeds the
common size, is always great, and always
amazing,

Turbine fumantem piceo et candente favilla.
Attollitque globos flammarum, et sidera lambit :
Interdum scopulos, avolsaque viscera montis
Erigit eructans, liquefactaque saxa sub auras

Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exzstuat imo.

The coast where /Mtna lies,

Horrid and waste, its entrails fraught with fire ;

That now casts out dark fumes and pitchy clouds,
Vast show’rs of ashes hov’ring in the smoke ;

Now belches molten stones, and ruddy flames
Incens’d, or tears up mountains by the roots,

Or slings a broken rock aloft in air.

The bottom works with smother’d fire, involv’d

In pestilential vapours, stench, and smoke.— Addison,

Longinus’s short description has the same spirit and grandeur
with Virgil’s. The sidera lambit, in the fourth line, has the
swell in it, which Longinus, Sect. 1, calls super-tragical,
This is the remark of Dr. Pearce; and it is observable, that
Mr. Addison has taken no notice of those words in bis trans-
lation.

192 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

SECTION XXXVI.

Wirth regard, therefore, to those sublime
writers, whose flight, however exalted, *never
- fails of its use and advantage, we must add
another consideration.—Those other inferior
beauties shew their authors to be men; but
the Sublime makes near approaches to the
height of God. What is correct and fault-
less, comes off barely without censure; but
the grand and the lofty command admiration.
What can I add further? One exalted and
subline sentiment in those noble authors
makes ample amends for.all their defects.
And, what is most remarkable, were the
errors of Homer, Demosthenes, Plato, and
the rest of the most celebrated authors, to
be culled carefully out and thrown together,

1 « Never fails of its use and advantage.”] Longinus, in the
preceding Section, had said, that men ‘ view with amaze the
celestial fires (such as the sun and moon), though they are fre-

?

quently obscured ;” the case is the same with the burning
mountain AEtna, though it casts up pernicious fire from its
abyss: but here, when he returns to the sublime authors, he
intitnates, that the sublime is the more to be admired, be-
cause, far from being useless or amusiug merely, it is of great

service to its authors, as well as to the public.— Dr. Pearce,

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 193

they would not bear the least proportion to
those infinite, those inimitable excellences,
which are so conspicuous in these heroes of
antiquity. And for this reason, has every
age and every generation, unmoved by par-
tiality, and unbiassed by envy, awarded the
laurels to these great masters, which flourish
still green and unfading on their brows, and
will flourish,
As long as streams in silver mazes rove,
Or Spring with annual green renews the grove.
Fenton.

A certain writer objects here, that an ill-
wrought *Colossus cannot be set upon the
level with a little faultless statue; for in-
stance, *the little soldier of Polycletus: but
the answer to this is very obvious. In the
works of art we have regard to exact propor-
tion; in those of nature, to grandeur and
magnificence. Now speech is a gift bestowed

2 'The Colossus was a most famous statue of Apollo, erected
at Rhodes by Jalysus, of a size so vast, that the sea ran, and

ships of the greatest burden sailed, between its legs,
Dr. Pearce. :

3'The Doryphorus, a small statue by Polycletus, a cele-
brated statuary. ‘The proportions were so finely observed in
it, that Lysippus professed he had learned all his art from the
study and imitation of it.

194 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

upon us by nature. As, therefore, resem-
blance and proportion to the originals is re-
quired in statues, so, in the noble faculty of
discourse, there should be something extraor-
dinary, something more than humanly great.

But to close this long digression, which had _
been more regularly placed at the beginning
of the Treatise ; since it must be owned, that
it is the business of art to avoid defect and
blemish, and almost an impossibility in the
Sublime, always to preserve the same majes-
tic air, the same exalted tone, art and nature
should join hands, and mutually assist one
another. For, from such union and alliance,
perfection must certainly result.

‘bese are the decisions I have thought
proper to make concerning the questions in
debate. I pretend not to say they are abso-
Jutely right ; let those who are willing, make
use of their own judgment.

-

SECTION XXXVII.

To return, ‘Similes and Comparisons
bear so near an affinity to Metaphors, as to

1The manner in which Similes or Comparisons differ from
Metaphors, we cannot know from Longinus, because of the

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 195

differ from them only in one particular * *
* * * * [The remainder of this Section
isi'fost.] 9 * o8-u* i *

SECTION XXXVIII.

- * % * {the beginning. of this Section
Ob My perpcies is10st.). "eA ee
* * As this Hyperbole, for instance, is ex-
ceeding bad: Ԥ If you carry not your brains

gap which follows in the original ; but they differ only in the
expression. ‘T’o say that fine eyes are the eyes of a dove, or
that cheeks are a bed of spices, are strong Metaphors ; which
become Comparisons, if expressed thus—are as the eyes of a
dove, or as a bed of spices. ‘These two Comparisons are taken
from the description of the Beloved in the Song of Solomon
(ver. 1O—16.), in which there are more, of great strength and
propriety, and an uncommon sweetness :

“« My Beloved is sweet and ruddy, the chief among ten thou-
sand. His head is as the most fine gold ; his locks are bushy,
and black as a raven, His eyes are as the eyes of a dove by the
rivers of water, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks
are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers ; his lips like lilies,
dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold-rings
set with the beryl: his belly is as bright as ivory overlaid with
sapphire. His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of
fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the
cedars. His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether
lovely.”

196 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

in the soles of your feet, and tread upon
them.”* One consideration, therefore, must
always be attended to, “ How far the thought
can properly be carried.” For overshooting
the mark often spoils an Hyperbole; and
whatever is overstretched loses its tone, and
immediately relaxes; nay, sometimes pro-
duces an effect contrary to that for which it
was intended. Thus Isocrates, childishly
ambitious of saying nothing without enlarge-
ment, has fallen into a shameful puerility.
The end and design of his Panegyric ‘is to
prove that the Athenians had done greater
service to the united body of Greece than
the Lacedemonians ; and this is his begin-
ning: “ The virtue and efficacy of eloquence
is so great, as to be able to render great things
contemptible, to dress up trifling subjects in
pomp and show, to clothe what is old and

* Demosthenis seu potius Hegesippi Orat. de Haloneso, ad
finem.

1 Panegyric.”| This is the most celebrated oration of
Isocrates, which, after ten, or, as some say, fifteen years’ labour
spent upon it, begins in so indiscrect a manner. Longinus,
Sect. iil. has censured Timezus, for a frigid parallel between
the expedition of Alexander and Isocrates; yet Gabriel de
Petra, an editor of Longinus, is guilty of the same fault, in
making even an elephant more expeditious than Isocrates, be-
cause they breed faster than he wrote.

LONGINUS.ON THE SUBLIME. 197

obsolete in a new dress, and put off new oc-
currences in an air of antiquity.” And will
it not be immediately demanded,—Is this
what you are going to practise with regard
to the affairs of the Athenians and Lacede-
monians?—For this ill-timed encomium of
eloquence is an inadvertent admonition to
the audience, not to listen or give credit to
what he says.

*'Those Hyperboles in short are the best

* The whole of this remark is curious and refined. It is the
importance of a passion which qualifies the Hyperbole, and
makes that commendable, when uttered in warmth and vehe-
mence, which in coolness and sedateness would be insupport-
able. So Cassius speaks iavidiously of Cesar, in order to
raise the indignation of Brutus :

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

So, again, in return to the swelling arrogance of a bully,
To whom? to thee? what art thou? have not I
An arn as big as thine? a heart as big?

Thy words I grant are bigger: for I wear not
My dagger in my mouth.

Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

Hyperboles literally are impossibilities, and therefore can
only then be seasonable or productive of Sublimity, when the
circumstances may be stretched beyond their proper size, that
they may appear without fail important and great.

198 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

(as [ have before observed of Figures) which
have neither the appearance nor air of Hy-
perboles. And this never fails to be the
state of those, which in the heat of a passion
flow out in the midst of some grand circum-
stance. ‘hus Thucydides has dexterously
applied one to his countrymen that perished
in Sicily :* ‘The Syracusans (says he) came
down upon them, and made a_ slaughter
chiefly of those who were in the river. The
water was immediately discoloured with
blood. But the stream polluted with mud
and gore, deterred them not from drinking
it greedily, nor many of them from fighting
desperately for a draught of it.” A circum-
stance so uncommon and affecting, gives
those expressions of drinking mud and gore,
and fighting desperately for it, an air of pro-
bability.

Herodotus has used a like Hyperbole, con-
cerning those warriors who fell at Thermo-
pyle: “In this place they defended them-
selves with the weapons. that were left, and
with.their hands and teeth, till they were
buried under the arrows of barbarians.” Is

* Thucydid. |. 7. p. 446. ed. Oxon.
+ Herod. 1. 7. c. 225.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 199

it possible, you will say, for men to defend
themselves with their teeth, against the fury
and violence of armed assailants? Is it pos-
sible that men could be buried under arrows?
Notwithstanding all this, there is a seeming
probability init. For the circumstance does
not appear to have been fitted to the Hyper-
bole; but the Hyperbole seems to be the ne-
cessary production of the circumstance.
For applying these strong Figures, only where
the heat of action, or impetuosity of passion
demands them (a point I shall never cease to
insist upon), very much softens and mitigates
the boldness of too daring expressions. °So
in comedy, circumstances wholly absurd and
incredible pass off very well, because they
answer their end, and raise a laugh. As in
this passage: “‘ He was owner of a piece of
ground not so large as *a Lacedemonian let-

3 The Author has hitherto treated of Hyperboles as con-
ducive to Sublimity, which has nothing to do with humour and
mirth, the peculiar province of Comedy. Here the incidents
must be so over-stretched as to promote diversion and iaughter.
Now what is most absurd and incredible, sometimes becomes
the keenest joke. But there is judgment even in writing ab-
surdities and incredibilities ; otherwise, instead of raising the
laugh, they sink below it, and give the spleen. Genius and
discretion are requisite to play the fool with applause.

* Demetrius Phalereus has commended one of these letters

200 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

ter.” For laughter is a passion arising from
some inward pleasure.

But Hyperboles equally serve to two pur-
poses ; they enlarge and they lessen. Stretch-
ing any thing beyond its natural size is the
property of both. And the Diasyrm (the
other species of the Hyperbole) increases the
lowness of any thing, or renders trifles more
trifling.’

for its sententious and expressive conciseness, which has been
often quoted to illustrate this passage. It is very well worth
observation. ‘The direction is longer than the letter :—

The Lacedemonians to Philip.

“¢ Dionysius is at Corinth,”

At the time when this was written, Dionysius, who for his
tyranny had been driven out of Sicily, taught school at Corinth
for bread. So that it was a hint to Philip not to proceed, as
he had begun, to imitate his conduct, lest he should be reduced
to the same necessitous condition.

5 Shakespeare has made Richard III. speak a merry Diasyrm
upon himself :—

I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty,
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph ;

I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time,

Into this breathing world ; scarce halfmade up,
And that, so lamely and unfashionably,

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 201

PART V.

SECTION XXXIX.

We have now, my friend, brought down
our inquiries to* the fifth and last source of

1 The Author, in the fifth division, treats of Composition, or
such a structure of the words and periods, as conduces most to
harmony of sound. ‘This subject has been handled with the
utmost nicety and refinement by the ancient writers, particu-
larly Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Demetrius Phalereus.
The former, in his Treatise on the Structure of Words, has re-
counted the different sorts of style, has divided each into the’
periods of which it is composed, has again subdivided those
periods into their different members, those members into their
words, those words into syllables, and has even anatomized the
very syllables into letters, and made observations on the dif-
ferent natures and sounds of the vowels, half-vowels, and
mutes. He shews, by instances drawn from Homer, Herodo-
tus, Thucydides, &c. with what artful management those great
authors have sweetened and ennobled their Compositions, and
made their sound to echo to the sense. But a style, he says,
may be sweet without any grandeur, and may be grand without
any sweetness. Thucydides is an example of the latter, and
Xenophon of the former; but Herodotus has succeeded in
both, and written his history in the highest perfection of style.

O

902 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

Sublimity, which, according to the divisions
premised at first, is the Composition or Struc-
ture of the words. And though I have drawn
up, in two former treatises, whatever obser-

An English reader would be surprised to see with what
exactness they lay down rules for the feet, times, and measures
of prose as well as of verse. ‘This was not peculiar to the
Greek writers, since Cicero himself, in his rhetorical works,
abounds in rules of this nature for the Latin tongue. The
works of that great orator could not have lived, and received
such general applause, had they not been laboured with the
utmost art; and, what is really surprising, how careful soever
his attention was, to the length of his syllables, the measure of
his feet, and the modulation of his words, yet it has not damped
the spirit, or stiffened the freedom of his thoughts. Any one
of his performances, on a general survey, appears grand and
noble ; on a closer inspection, every part shews peculiar sym-
metry and grace.

Longinus contents himself here with two or three general
observations, having written two volumes already on this sub-
ject. The loss of these, I fancy, will raise no great regret in
the mind of an English reader, who has little notion of such
accuracies in composition. The free language we speak will
not endure such refined regulations, for fear of incumbrance
and restraint. Harmony indeed it is capable of to a high de-
gree, yet such as flows not from precept, but the genius and
judgment of composers. A good ear is worth a thousand rules ;
since with it the periods will be rounded and sweetened, and
the style exalted, so that judges shall commend and teach others
to admire; and without it, all endeavours to gain attention
shall be vain and ineffectual, unless where the grandeur of
the sense will atone for rough and unharmonious expression,

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME: 203

vations I had made on this head, yet the
present occasion lays me under a necessity
of making some additions here.

Harmonious Composition has not only a
natural tendency to please and to persuade,
but inspires us, to a wonderful degree, with
generous ardour and passion. * Fine notes.
in music have a surprising effect on the pas-
sions of an audience. Do they not fill the
breast with inspired warmth, and lift up the
heart into heavenly transport? The very
limbs receive motion from the notes, and the
hearer, though he has no skill at all in music,
is sensible, however, that all its turns make
a strong impression on his body and mind.
The sounds of any musical instrument are in
themselves insignificant, yet, by the changes
of the air, the agreement of the chords, and
symphony of the parts, they give extraordi-
nary pleasure, as we daily experience, to the
minds of an audience. Yet these are only
spurious images and faint imitations of the

*~

2 In this passage two musical instruments are mentioned,
avdoc and xBapn; but as what is said of them in the Greek will
not suit with the modern notions of a pipe and a harp, I hope’
I shall not be blamed for dropping those words, and keeping
these remarks in a general application to music.

og :

204 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

persuasive voice of man, and far from the ge-
nuine effects and operations of human nature.

What an opinion therefore may we justly
form of fine Composition, the effect of * that
harmony, which nature has implanted in the
voice of man! It is made up of words, which
by no means die upon the ear, but sink with-
in, and reach the understanding. And then,
does it not inspire us with fine ideas of senti-
ments and things, of beauty and of order,
qualities of the same date and existence with
our souls? Does it not, by an elegant struc-
ture and marshalling of sounds, convey the
passions of the speaker into the breasts of his
audience? Then, does it not seize their at-
tention, and, by framing an edifice of words
to suit the sublimity of thoughts, delight, and
transport, and raise those ideas of dignity and
grandeur, which it shares itself, and was de-
signed, by the ascendant it gains upon the
mind, to excite in others? But it is folly to
endeavour to prove what all the world will

3 Tanta oblectatio est in ipsa facultate dicendi, ut nihil ho-
minum auf auribus aut mentibus jucundius pereipi possit. Quis
enim cantus moderata orationis pronunciatione dulcior inveniri
potest ? quod carmen artificiosa verborum conclusione aptius ?
—Cicero de Oratore, 1. 11.

‘

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 205

allow to be true. For experience is an indis-
putable conviction.

That sentiment seems very lofty, and justly
deserves admiration, which Demosthenes im-
mediately subjoins to the decree ;* Touro ro
Wnpicpc TOV TOTE TN TONES WERT TAVT A xIVOUVOY Wae~
erbew emromrey, Wome vedos. ‘* ‘This very decree
scattered, like a vapour, the danger which at
that time hung hovering over the city.” Yet
the sentiment itself is not more to be admired
than the harmony of the period. It consists
throughout of Dactylics, the finest measure,
and. most conducing to Sublimity. And
hence are they admitted into heroic verse,
universally allowed to be the most noble of
all. But for further satisfaction, only trans-
pose a word or two, just as you please; Touro
TO Wngicpa, womeg veQos, emomore Tov TOTE xiVvdUVOY
mapenfew or take away a syllable, exomre wag-
eSew ws vepos, and you will quickly discern
how much Harmony conspires with Sublimity.
In scree vegos, the first word moves along in a
stately measure of four times, and when one
syllable is taken away, as as veges, the sub-
traction maims thé Sublimity. So, on the
other side, if you lengthen it, wagenfew exosrey,

* Orat. de Corona, p. 114, ed, Oxon.

206 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

womepes vepoc, the sense indeed is still preserved,
but the cadence is entirely lost. For the
grandeur of the period languisheth and re-
laxeth, when enfeebled by the stress that
must be laid upon the additional syllable.

———

SECTION XL.

Bur, amongst other methods, an apt Con-
nexion of the parts conduces as much to the
agerandizing discourse,’ as symmetry in the
members of the body to a majestic mien. If
they are taken apart, each single member will
have no beauty or grandeur, but when skil-
fully knit together, they produce what is
called a fine person. So the constituent parts
of noble periods, when rent asunder and di-
vided, in the act of division fly off and lose
their Sublimity; but when united into one
body, and associated together by the bond
of harmony, they join to promote their own

1 So Mr. Pope :—

In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts
Is not th’ exactness of peculiar parts;
Tis not a lip or cheek we beauty call,
But the joint force and full result of all.
Essay on Criticism.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. “207

elevation, and by their union and multiplicity
bestow a more emphatical turn upon every
period. Thus several poets, and other writers,
possessed of no natural Sublimity, or rather
entire strangers to it, have very frequently
made use of common and vulgar terms,
that have not the least air of elegance to re-
commend them; yet, by musically disposing
and artfully connecting such terms, they
clothe their periods in a kind of pomp and
exaltation, and dexterously conceal their in-
trinsic lowness. |

Many writers have succeeded by this me-
thod, but especially ? Philistus, as also Ari-
stophanes, in some passages, and Euripides
in very many. ‘Thus Hercules, after the
murder of his children, cries,*

I’m full of mis’ries ; there’s not room for more.

The words are very vulgar, but their turn
answering so exactly to the sense, gives the

? Commentators differ about this Philistus. Some affirm it
should be Philiscus, who, according to Dacier, wrote comedy,
but according to Tollius, tragedy. Quinctilian (whom Dr.
Pearce follows) mentions Philistus a Syracusan, a great fa-
vourite of Dionysius the tyrant, whose history he wrote, after
the manner of Thucydides, but with the sincerity of a courtier.

* Euripid. Hercules furens, ver. 1250, ed. Barnes,

208 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

period an exalted air. And if you transpose
them into any other order, you will quickly
be convinced, that Euripides excels more in
fine composition than in fine sentiments. So

in his description of * Dirce dragged along
by the bull,— |

3 Zethus and Amphion tied their mother-in-law, Dirce, by
the hair of her head to a wild bull, which image Euripides has
represented in this passage. Langbaine observes, that there is
a fine sculpture on this subject, by Taurisius, in the palace of
Farnese at Rome, of which Baptista de Cavalleriis has given
us a print in |. i. p. 3. antiqg. statuarum urbis Rome.

There is a much greater Image than this in the Paradise
Lost, B. vi. 644, with which this remark of Longinus on the
sedate grandeur and judicious pauses will exactly square :

From their foundations loos’ning to and fro,
‘They pluck’d the seated hills, with all their load,
Rocks, waters, woods ; and by the shaggy tops

Uplifting bore them in their hands,

So again in Book ii. ver. 557.—When the fallen spirits are
engaged in deep and abstruse researches concerning fate, free-
will, foreknowledge, the very structure of the words expresses
the intricacy of the discourse ; and the repetition of some of
the words, with epithets of slow pronunciation, shews the diffi-
culty of making advancements in such unfathomabie points :

Others apart sat on a hill retir’d,

In thoughts more elevate, and reason’d high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate ;
Fix’d fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute ;
And found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost,

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 209

Whene’er the madd’ning creature rag’d about
And whirl’d his bulk around in awkward circles,
‘The dame, the oak, the rock, were dragg’d along.

The thought itself is noble, but is more
ennobled, because the terms used in it are
harmonious, and neither run too hastily off
the ear, nor are, as it were, mechanically
accelerated. They are disposed into due
pauses, mutually supporting one another;
these pauses are all of a slow and stately
measure, sedately mounting to solid and sub-
stantial grandeur.

SECTION XII.

Noruinc so much debases Sublimity as
broken and precipitate measures, such as
* Pyrrhics, Trochees, and Dichorees, that are
hit for nothing but dances. Periods tuned
in these numbers, are indeed neat and brisk,
but devoid of passion; and their cadence
being eternally the same, becomes very dis-
agreeable. But what is still worse, as in
songs, the notes divert the mind from the
sense, and make us attentive only to the

1 A Pyrrhic is a foot of two short syllables; a Trochee of
one long and one short; aud a Dichoree is a double Trochee.

210 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

music; so these brisk and rhyming periods
never raise in the audience any passion suit-
able to the subject, but only an attention to
the run of the words. Hence, foreseeing the
places where they must necessarily rest, they
have gestures answering to every turn, can
even beat the time, and tell beforehand, as ex-
actly as in a dance, where the pause will be.
In like manner, Periods forced into too nar-
row compass, and pent'up in words of short
and few syllables, or that are, as it were,
nailed together in an awkward and clumsy
manner, are always destitute of grandeur,

SECTION XLII.

Contraction of Style is another great di-
minution of Sublimity. Grandeur requires
room, and when under too much confinement,
cannot move so freely as it ought. Ido not
mean here Periods, that demand a proper
conciseness ; but, on the contrary, those that
are curtailed and minced. ‘Too much Con-
traction lays a restraint upon the sense, but
Conciseness strengthens and adjusts it. And
on the other side, it is evident, that when pe-
riods are spun out into a vast extent, their life

LONGINUS:ON THE SUBLIME. 211

and spirit evaporate, and all their strength is
lost, by being quite overstretched.

SECTION XULIII.

Low and sordid words are terrible ble-
mishes to fine sentiments. ‘Those of Herodo-
tus, in his description of a tempest, are divine-
ly noble, but the terms in which they are éx-
pressed, very much tarnish and impair their
lustre. ‘Thus, when he says,* “ The seas be-
gan ‘to seeth,” how does the uncouth sound
of the word seeth, lessen the grandeur? And
further, ‘* The wind (says he) was tired out,
and those who were wrecked in the storm,
ended their lives very disagreeably.” ‘'T'o be
tired out, is a mean and vulgar term; and
that disagreeably, a word highly dispropor-
tioned to the tragical event itis used to ex-
press.

= lacrod. 7. c. 19}.

1 « To seeth.”] Ihave chosen this word rather than boi,
which is not a blemished term in our language : and besides,
seeth resembles more the Greek word Zecacne in the ill sound
that it has upon the palate, which is the fault that Longinus
finds with the word in Herodotus. Milton has something of
the like sort which offends the ear, when we read in Book i,
Azazel, “ as his right,” &c.

212 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

_*Theopompus, in like manner, after setting
out splendidly in describing the Persian expe-
dition into Egypt, has'spoiled all, by the in-
termixture of some low and trivial words.
‘“ What city or what nation was there in all
Asia, which did not compliment the king
with an embassy? What rarity was there,
either of the produce of the earth, or the
work of art, with which he was not presented?
How many rich and gorgeous carpets, with
vestments purple, white, and particoloured ?
How many tents of golden texture, suitably
furnished with all necessaries? How many
embroidered robes and sumptuous beds, be-
sides an immense quantity of wrought silver
and gold, cups and goblets, some of which
you might see adorned with precious stones,
and others embellished with most exquisite
art and costly workmanship? Add to these
innumerable sorts of arms, Grecian and Bar-
barian, beasts of burden beyond computa-
tion, and cattle fit to form the most luxurious
repasts. And further, how many bushels of
pickles and preserved fruits? How many

2 Theopompus was a Chian and a scholar of Isocrates,
His genius was too hot and impetuous, which was the occa-
sion of a remark of his master Isocrates, that “‘ Ephorus always

wanted a spur, but Theopompus a curb.”

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 213

hampers, packs of paper, and books, and all
things besides, that necessity or convenience
could require? In a word, there was so great
abundance of all sorts of flesh ready salted,
that when put together, they swelled to pro-
digious heights, and were regarded by per-
sons at a distance, as so many mountains or
hillocks piled one upon another.” He has
here sunk from a proper elevation of his sense
to a shameful lowness, at that very instant,
when his subject required an enlargement.
And besides, by his confused mixture of
baskets, of pickles, and of packs, in the nar-
rative of so grand preparations, he has shifted
the scene, and presented us with a kitchen.
If, upon making preparation for any grand
expedition, any one should bring and throw
down a parcel of hampers and packs, in
the midst of massy goblets adorned with in-
estimable stones, or of silver embossed, and
tents of golden stuffs, what an unseemly spec-
tacle would sucha gallimaufry present to the
eye! It is the same with description, in
which these low terms, unseasonably applied,
become so many blemishes and flaws.

Now he might have satisfied himself with
giving only a summary account of those
mountains (as he says they were thought) of

214 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

provisions, and when he came to otfler parti-
culars of the preparations, might have varied
his narration thus; “ There wasa great mul-
titude of camels and other beasts, laden with
all sorts of meat requisite either for satiety
or delicacy :” or have termed them, “ heaps
of all sorts of viands, that would serve as well
to form an exquisite repast, as to gratify the
nicest palate ;” or rather, to comply with his
humour of relating things exactly, ‘ all that
caterers and cocks could prepare, as nice
and delicate.”

In the Sublime, we ought never to take up
with sordid and blemished terms, unless re-
duced to it by the most urgent necessity.
The dignity of our words ought always to be
proportioned to the dignity of our sentiments.

Here we should imitate the proceeding of
nature in the human fabric, who has neither
placed those parts, which it is indecent to
mention, nor the vents of the excrements, in
open view, but concealed them as much as
is possible, and “removed their channels
(to make use of Xenophon’s words*) to the
greatest distance from the eyes,” thereby to

* Xenoph. Azopynpor. 1. 2. p. 45. edit. Oxon.

-

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 215

preserve the beauty of the animal entire and
unblemished.’ |

To pursue this topic further, by a particu-
lar recital of whatever diminishes and impairs
the Sublime, would be a-needless task. We
have already shewn what methods elevate and
ennoble, and it is obvious to every one that
their opposites must lower and debasc it.

SECTION XLIV.

SoMETHING yet remains to be said, upon
which, because it suits well with your inqui-
sitive disposition, I shall not be averse from
enlarging. It is not long since a philosopher
of my acquaintance discoursed me in the
following manner.

‘‘ It is (said he) to me, as well as to many
others, a just matter of surprise, how it comes
to pass, that in the age we live, there are
many geniuses well practised in the arts of
eloquence and persuasion, that can discourse
with dexterity and strength, and embellish

5 Que partes autem corporis, ad nature necessitatem date,
adspectum essent deformem habiture ac turpem, eas contexit
atque abdidit. Cicero de Offic. p.61, 62. Edit. Cockman.

216 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

their style in a very graceful manner, but
none (or so few, that they are next to none)
who may be said to be truly great and sub-
lime. The scarcity of such writers is general
throughout the world. May we believe at
last, that there is solidity in that trite obser-
vation, That democracy is the nurse of true
genius; that fine writers will be found only
in this sort of government, with which they
flourish and triumph, or decline and die?
Liberty, it is said, produces fine sentiments
in men of genius; it invigorates their hopes,
excites an honourable emulation, and inspires
an ambition and thirst of excelling. And
what is more, in free states there are. prizes
to be gained, which are worth disputing. So
that by this means, the natural faculties of
the orators are sharpened and polished by
continual practice, and the liberty of their
thoughts, as it is reasonable to expect, shines
conspicuously out in the liberty of their de-
bates.

‘* But for our parts (pursued he) *we were

%

1 We were born in subjection,” &c.] The words in the
original za:copabere Govdecac dexarac are differently interpreted
by persons of great learning and sagacity. Madame Dacier
has taken occasion to mention them in her notes upon Te-
rence. Her words are these: “In the last chapter of Longi-

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 217

born in subjection, in lawful subjection, it is
true, to arbitrary government. Hence, the

nus, raccouadec dovrerac ducacac, signifies not, we are from our
infancy used to a lawful government, but to an easy govern-
ment, chargeable with neither tyranny nor violence.” Dr.
Pearce is of a quite contrary opinion. “ The word duxara (says
he) does not signify mz/d or easy, as some think, but just and
lawful vassalage, when kings and rulers are possessed of a full
power and authority over their subjects: and we find Isocrateg
uses apyn cuxaca (a despotical government) in this sense,” The
Doctor then gives his opinion, that “ Longinus added this
word, as well as some which follow, that his affection to the
Roman emperor might not be suspected.”

I have chosen to translate these words in the latter sense,
which (with submission to the judgment of so learned a lady),
seems preferable to, and more natural than, that which Madame
Dacier has given it. The Critic(in the person of the philoso-
pher who speaks here) is accounting for the scarcity of sublime
writers ; and avers democracy to be the nurse of genius, and
the greatest encourager of sublimity. The fact is evident from
the republics of Greece and Rome. In Greece, Athens was
most democratical, and a state of the greatest liberty. And
hence it was, that, according to the observation of Paterculus
(I. i. near the end), ‘‘ Eloquence flourished in greater force
and plenty in that city alone, than in all Greece besides : inso-
much that (says he) though the bodies of the people were dis-
persed into other cities, yet you would think their genius to
have been pent up within the bare precincts of Athens.” Pin-
dar the Theban, as he afterwards owns, is the only exception
to this remark. So the city of Rome was not only the seat of
liberty and empire, but of true wit and exalted genius. The
Roman power indeed outlived the Roman liberty, but wit
and genius could not long survive it. What a bigh value

P

918 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

prevailing manners made too strong an 1m-
pression on our infant minds, and the in-
fection was sucked in with the milk of our
nurses. We have never tasted liberty, that
copious and fertile source of all that 1s beau-
tiful and of all that is great, and hence are
we nothing but pompous flatterers. It is
from hence that we may see all other qualifi-
cations displayed to perfection, in the minds
of slaves: but never yet did a slave become
an orator. His spirit being effectually broken,
the timorous vassal will still be uppermost ;
the habit of subjection continually overawes
and beats down his genius. For, according

to Homer,*

Jove fix’d it certain, that whatever day
Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.— Pope.

ought we then to set upon liberty, since without it, nothing
great or suitable to the dignity of human nature, can possibly
be produced! Slavery is the fetter of the tongue, the chain of
the mind, as well as of the body. It embitters life, sours and
corrupts the passions, damps the towering faculties implanted
within us, and stifles in the birth the seeds of every thing that is
amiable, generous, and noble. Reason and Freedom are our
own, and given to continue so. We are to use, but cannot
resign them, without rebelling against Him who gave them.
The invaders of either ought to be resisted by the united force
of all men, since they encroach on the privileges we receive
from God, and traverse the designs of infinite goodness.
* Odyss. ver. 322.

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 219

‘“<'lhus I have heard (if what I have heard
in this case may deserve credit) that the cases_
in which dwarfs are kept, not only prevent
the future growth of those who are inclosed
in them, but diminish what bulk they already
have, by too close constriction of their parts.
So slavery, be it never so easy, yet is slavery
still, and may deservedly be called the prison
of the soul, and the public dungeon.”

Here I interrupted. “Such complaints as
yours, against the present times, are generally
_ heard, and easily made. But are you sure
that this corruption of genius is not owing to
the profound peace which reigns throughout
the world? or rather, does it not flow from
the war within us, and the sad effects of our
own turbulent passions? 'Those passions plunge
us into the worst of slaveries, and tyranni-
cally drag us wherever they please. Avarice
(that disease of which the whole world is sick
beyond a cure), aided by voluptuousness,
holds us fast in chains of thraldom; or rather,
if I may so express it, overwhelms life itself,
as well as all that live, in the depths of misery,
For love of money is the disease which ren-
ders us most abject ; and love of pleasure is
that which renders us most corrupt. I have,
indeed, thought much upon it, but after al

P2

bat
.-

220 LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

judge it impossible for the pursuers, or, to
speak more truly, the adorers and worship-
pers of immense riches, to preserve their souls
from the infection of those vices which are
firmly allied to them. For profuseness will be
wherever there is affluence. They are firmly
Jinked together, and constant attendants upon
one another. Wealth unbars the gates of
cities, and opens the doors of houses: pro-
fuseness gets in at the same time, and there
they jointly fix their residence. After some
continuance in their new establishment, they
build their nests (in the language of philoso-
phy), and propagate their species. ‘There they
hatch arrogance, pride, and luxury, no spu-
rious brood, but their genuine offspring. If
these children of wealth be fostered and suf-
fered to reach maturity, they quickly engen-
der the most inexorable tyrants, and make
the soul groan under the oppressions of inso-
lence, injustice, and the most seared and
hardened impudence. When men are thus
fallen, what I have mentioned must needs re-
sult from their depravity. They can no longer
endure a sight of any thing above their gro-
velling selves; and as for reputation, they re-
gardit not. When once such corruption in-
fects an age, it gradually spreads and becomes

*

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 221

universal. The faculties of the soul will then
grow stupid, their spirit will be lost, and good
sense and genius must lie in ruins, when the
care and study of man is engaged about the
mortal, the worthless part of himself, and he
has ceased to cultivate virtue, and polish his
nobler part, the soul.

«A corrupt and dishonest judge is inca-
pable of making unbiassed and solid deci-
sions by the rules of equity and honour. His
habit of corruption unavoidably prevents
what is right and just, from appearing right
and just to him. Since then the whole tenor
of life is guided only by the rule of interest,
to promote which, we even desire the death
of others to enjoy their fortunes, after having
by base and disingenuous practices crept
into their wills; and since we frequently
hazard our lives for a little pelf, the misera-
ble slaves of our own avarice, can we expect,
in such a general corruption, so contagious a
depravity, to find one generous and impar-
tial soul above the sordid views of avarice,
and clear of every selfish passion, that may
distinguish what is truly great, what works
are fit to live forever? Is it not better for
persons in our situation, to submit to the
yoke of government, rather than continue

999, LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME.

masters of themselves, since such headstrong -
passions, when set at liberty, would rage like
madmen, who have burst their prisons, and
inflame the whole world with endless dis-
orders? Ina word, an insensibility to what-
ever is truly great has been the bane of every
rising genius of the present age. Hence life
in general (for the exceptions are exceeding
few) is thrown away in indolence and sloth.
Tn this deadly lethargy, or even any brighter
intervals of the disease, our faint endeavours
aim at nothing but pleasure and empty osten-
tation, too weak and languid for those high
acquisitions, which take their rise from noble
emulation, and end in real advantage and
substantial glory.”

Here perhaps it may be proper to drop
this subject, and pursue our business. * We

2 « We come now to the Passions,’ &c.] The learned
world ought certainly to be condoled with, on the great loss
they have sustained in Longinus’s Treatise on the Passions.
The excellence of this on the Sublime, makes us regret the
more the loss of the other, and inspires us with deep resent-
ments of the irreparable depredations committed on learning
and the valuable productions of antiquity, by Goths, and
monks, and time. There, in all probability, we should have
beheld the secret springs and movements of the soul disclosed
to view. There we should have been taught, if rule and obser-
vation in this case can teach, to elevate an audience into joy,

LONGINUS ON THE SUBLIME. 223

come now to the Passions, an account of
which I have promised before in a distinct
treatise, since they not only constitute the
ornaments and beauties of discourse, but if.
I am not mistaken) have a great share in the
SUBLIME. |

or melt them into tears. There we should have learned, if
ever, to work upon every passion, to put every heart, every
pulse in emotion. At present we must sit down contented
under the loss, and be satisfied with this invaluable piece on the
Sublime, which with much hazard has escaped a wreck, and
gained a port, though not undamaged. Great indeed are the
commendations which the judicious bestow upon it, but not in
the least disproportioned to its merit. For in it are treasured
up the laws and precepts of fine writing, and a fine taste.
Here are the rules which polish the writer’s invention, and -
refine the critic’s judgment. Here is an object proposed at
once for our admiration and imitation,

Dr. Pearce’s advice will be a seasonable conclusion—
“¢ Read over very frequently this golden Treatise (which de-
serves not only to be read but imitated), that you may hence
understand, not only how the best authors have written, but
learn yourself to become an author of the first rank. Read it
therefore and digest it, then take up your pen in the words of
Virgil’s Nisus—

Aliquid jamdudum invadere magnum
Mens agitat mihi, nec placida contenta quiete est.”

FINIS.

INDEX OF AUTHORS

MENTIONED BY LONGINUS.

#Escnytus « - 121,123
Ammonius +, - 112
Amphicrates + + + 53, 59

Anacreon - + * + 169
Apollonius g 3
Pirdtubve | >. 9. +e
Archilochus + 102, 112, 183
Arimaspians, Altthor of the

Poem onthe - + - 97

Aristophanes + > 207
Aristotle + + ++ 174
Bacchylides + - 183 |

Casbna 44, 45, 57, 67, 70,
: 169, 179
: Calligthenes oie: yee s+ BS
‘Cicero.+ + «+.
Clitarchus 47 « "s+ ©. §3

Demosthenes, 50, 102,.107,
108, 114,129, 131,134, 137,
141,148, 160,172, 184, 185,

186, 188, 192, 205

Eratosthenes - 183
Eupolis - + + 130,131
Euripides 119, 123, 207, 208

Gorgias the Leontine - 52

Hecateus - + + « 160

“ Hegesias - - sg Wats «OS

Herodotus, 61, 112, 147, 157,

165} 719.198, 211°

Hesiod - - + « 75,114

Hyperides, 126,184, 185, 186,

Phrynicus:-- . . .

Homer, 60, 74, 75, 78, 81, 86,
87, 89, 98, 112, 113, 114,
140, 162, 181, 192, 218

188
fo the@hian +... 183
Isocrates - + + 58,42, 96
Lysias - + + + 185,189

Mattig : 6 66 02°) eT $3
WEGRUE a 8 ok eco BB
Philistus os Te eo ey
154
Pindar + + + 183,184
Plato, 58,60, 107, 109, 113,
114, 164, 165, 166,175,178,

179, 189, 193

Sappho - - + « « 93
Simonides «+. + «© 195
Sophocles,53,124,152, 183,184
Stesichorus - « . 112

Theocritus + + 182; 183
TnegdGrds « -» «+ » £6

Theophrastus - + +» 74

Theopompus - 169, 212
Thucydides, 114,148,156, 198
Timeus + + + + 57,58
Xenophon, 58, 59, 60, 66, 139,

156, 165, 175, 214

Zoilus Dee we. 6 OD

Printed by J. F. Dove, St. John’s Square.

“

888.9
LOG

unaccéess.

Dionysius Longinus

Sm

On the sublime

Smith, trans.