Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

22
SUBLIMITY IN WRITING*.
Perplexes monarchs. Darkened fo, yet flume
Above them all the Archangel
Here various fourccs of the fublime are joined togeth¬
er ; the principal objett fuperlatively great ; a high,
fuperior nature, fallen indeed, but raifmg itfelf againft
diftrefs; the grandeur of the principal objeft heightened
by connecting it with fo noble an idea, as thaL of the
fun fuffering an eclipfe ; this picture, (haded with all
thofe images of change and-trouble, of darknefs and ter¬
ror, which coincide lb exquifitely with the fublime emo¬
tion ; and the whole exprefled in a ftyle and verfification
eafy, natural, and fimple, but magnificent,
Befide limplicity and concifenefs ftrength is effentially
necefl'dry to fublime writing. Strength of defcription
proceeds in a great meafurc from concifenefs; but it im¬
plies fomething more, namely a judicious choice of cir-
cumftances in the defcription ; fuch, as will exhibit the
objeCt in its full and molt ftriking point of view. For
every objeCt has feveral faces, by which it may be pre-
fented to us, according to the circumftances, with which
we furround it ; and it will appear fuperlatively fub¬
lime, or not, m proportion,, as thefe circumftances are
happily chofen, and of a lublime kind. In this the
great art of the writer cohfifts ; and indeed the princi¬
pal difficulty of fublime defcription. If tire defcription
be too general, and divefted of circumftances; tire objeCt
is (hewn in a faint light, and makes a feeble impreffion,
er no impreffion, on the reader. At the fame time, if.