Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

SUBLIMITY IN WRITING.
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tomary -or vulgar, -conftitutes the fublirae ; yet nothing
is in reality more falfe. In genuine inftances of fub-
lime writing nothing of this kind appears. “ God faid,
“ let there be light ; and there was light.” This is
linking and fublime ; but put it into what is-commonly
called the fublime ftyle ; “ The Sovereign Arbiter of na-
“ ture by the potent energy of a lingle word commanded
4‘ the light to exilt ;” and, as Boileau juftly obferved,
the ftyle is indeed raifed, but the thought is degraded.
In general it may be obferved, that/the fublime lies
in the thought, not in the expreflion; and, when the
thought is really noble, it will generally clothe itfelf in a
native majefty of languag"
The faults, oppofite to the fublime, are principally
two, the Frigid and the Bombaft. The Frigid confifts
in degrading an dbjedt or fentiment, which is fublime in
itfelf, by a mean conception of it ; or by a weak, low,
or puerile defcription of it. This betrays entire abfence,
or at leaft extreme poverty of genius. "The Bombaft
lies in forcing a common or trivial objeift out of its rank,
and in laboring to raife it into the fublime ; or in at¬
tempting to exalt a fublime objed beyond alV natural
■bounds.
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