is excited; and if the poet deviate on any occasion from this great end and aim, he is guilty of a most scandalous abuse and perversion of his art. For the passions and affections are the elements and principles of human action; they are all in themselves good, useful, and virtuous; and, when fairly and naturally employed, not only lead to useful ends and purposes, but actually prompt and stimulate to virtue. It is the office of poetry to incite, to direct, to temper the passions, and not to extin guish them. It professes to exercise, to amend, to discipline the affections; it is this which is strictly meant by Aristotle, when he speaks of the pruning of the passions, though certain commentators have strangely perverted his meaning.3 But this operation on the passions is also more immediately useful, because it is productive of pleasure. Every emotion of the mind, (not excepting even those which in themselves are allied to pain) when excited through the agency of the imitative arts, is ever accompanied with an exquisite sensation of pleasure. This arises partly from the contemplation of the imitation itself; partly from the consciousness of our own felicity, when compared with the miseries of others; but principally from the moral sense. Nature has endued man with a certain social and generous spirit; and commands 3 I think nothing can well be more ridiculous than the established method of rendering παθημαίων ΚΑΘΑΡΣΙΝ, the cleansing or purging of the passions. Why should a secondary, or adventitious sense of a word be adopted, unless its primary signification be incompatible with the context?-In the common version of Jonx xv. 2. nabapti, a word from the same source with xabapos. is translated, he PURGETH, where it evidently signifies he PRUNETH ; So τalnμalov xalapov, instead of the CLEANSING or PURGING of the passions, should rather be the CHECKING of their excessive growth, or PRUNING their luxuriances, that so they might produce their proper fruits. S. H. 4 See Lord KAIMS's Elements of Criticism, Vol. I. ch. ii. Dr. PRIESTLEY'S Lectures on Oratory, page 137, and HARTLEY On the Human Mind, § iv. prop. 49. T. him not to confine his cares to himself alone, but to extend them to all his fellow-creatures; to look upon nothing which relates to mankind as foreign to himself. Thus, to rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to ་་ weep with them that weep;" to love and to respect piety and benevolence; to cherish and retain an indignant hatred of cruelty and injustice; that is, to obey the dictates of nature; is right, is honest, is becoming, is pleasant. The sublime and the pathetic are intrinsically very different; and yet have in some respects a kind of affinity or connection." The pathetic includes the passions 5 As our author is here treating of that species of the sublime, which is connected with the pathetic, and in a manner depends upon it; it may not be amiss to consider a little the means of exciting this sensation, which have been employed by some of the best writers. There are two principal modes of producing this mixed sensation. First, when the story or sentiment is sufficiently striking of itself, by reducing all the circumstances into as narrow a compass as possible, and causing them to flash at once upon the mind; of which Livy's description of the death of Lucretia is a fine example: and this appears the most natural, and is the surest mode of affecting the passions. The second is, by drawing out the description, heaping circumstance on circumstance, and working up the mind by decrees: this, however, is rarely accomplished with sufficient taste and caution. If I were called upon to specify another historical example, I would refer the reader to the description of Agrippina's return after the death of Germanicus, in Tacitus; or, I might add, the example quoted by our author from the song of Deborah and Baruk, Lect. xiii. The French dramatic writers generally fail by attempting this latter mode of affecting the passions; which is only proper, when there is not force enough in any single part of a narration; or when a picture cannot be drawn in a few words sufficiently explicit. Several circumstances, when judiciously introduced, contribute greatly to the pathetic, and consequently to that branch of sublimity, which is connected with it. First, When innocent and helpless persons are involved in ruin. To introduce an infant on the stage in a tragedy, though a common trick, is yet seldom destitute of effect. I must however remark, that if there be many to participate in the misfortune, the society in sorrow seems to lessen its weight. Secondly, Absence from friends, or persons otherwise very dear the whole of that inimitable poem, Mr. Pope's Eloisa, affords a strong example of this, and particularly the following lines: : "No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole ; 289. which we feel, and those which we excite. Some passions may be expressed without any thing of the sublime; the sublime also may exist, where no passion is directly expressed: there is however no sublimity where no passion is excited. That sensation of sublimity, Thirdly, Exile: "Methinks we wand'ring go "Thro' dreary wastes, and weep each other's woe, Ibid. 241. Par. Lost. xii. 646. Fourthly, A sudden abruption from a state of enjoyment: "Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom, POPE'S Eloisa, 325. Language cannot express a nobler union of the pathetic and sublime than is contained in the last line. Fithly, The recollection of past happiness is a fine source of the pathetic or happiness that might have been attained, but for some intervening circumstance that unexpectedly precludes it. On this are founded some of our best tragedies. See the Orphan. Also the Fair Penitent, last Act, Sixthly, Apparent resignation : "Oh grace serene! Oh virtue heav'nly fair! "Receive and wrap me in eternal rest!" Eloisa, 297. T. A seventh head may also be added, inattention to self, and solicitude for others. Thus, Lear to Kent: "Pr'ythee, go in thyself; seek thine own ease "Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, "That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, "Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you "From seasons such as these ?" And the address of our Saviour" Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for which arises from the greatness of the thoughts and imagery, has admiration for its basis, and that for the most part connected with joy, love, hatred, or fear; and this I think is evident from the instances which were so lately under our consideration. How much the sacred poetry of the Hebrews excels in exciting the passions, and in directing them to their noblest end and aim; how it exercises them upon their proper objects; how it strikes and fires the admiration by the contemplation of the Divine Majesty; and, forcing the affections of love, hope, and joy, from unworthy and terrestrial objects, elevates them to the pursult of the supreme good: How it also stimulates those of grief, hatred, and fear, which are usually employed upon the trifling miseries of this life to the abhorrence of the supreme evil, is a subject, which at present wants no illustration, and which, though not unconnected with sublimity in a general view, would be improperly introduced in this place. For we are not at present treating of the general effects of sublimity on the passions; but of that species of the sublime which proceeds from vehement emotions of the mind, and from the imitation or representation of passion. • The pathetic is so much the prevailing, or distinguishing quality of the Hebrew writings, that I do not hesitate to ascribe much of that superiority, which the moderns claim in this respect over the Greeks and Romans, to the free use which they have made of scriptural sentiments and expressions. The reader will easily be able to satisfy himself on this subject by a cursory inspection of Milton, Pope, and even some of our best tragic writers. Mr. Knox has very judiciously pointed out how greatly Sterne has been indebted to them. That an author, indeed, who has borrowed from others all the tolerable thoughts which are thinly scattered through his writings, should resort to the readiest, and most copious source of pathetic imagery, is not surprising. It is only to be lamented, that he has not made the best use of his plagiarisms; that these noble sentiments are so strangely disfigured by the insipid frivolity of his style: a style which no classical ear can possibly endure, and which must be confessed to derive its principal embellishments from what are called the typographical fig Here indeed a spacious field presents itself to our view for by far the greater part of the sacred poetry is little else than a continued imitation of the different passions. What in reality forms the substance and subject of most of these poems but the passion of admiration, excited by the consideration of the Divine power and majesty; the passion of joy, from the sense of the Divine favour, and the prosperous issue of events; the passion of resentment and indignation against the contemners of God; of grief, from the consciousness of sin; and terror, from the apprehension of the Divine judgement? Of all these, and if there be any emotions of the mind beyond these, exquisite examples may be found in the book of Job, in the Psalms, in the Canticles, and in every part of the prophetic writings. On this account my principal difficulty will not be the selection of excellent and proper instances, but the explaining of those which spontaneously occur without a considerable diminution of their intrinsic sublimity. Admiration, as it is ever the concomitant, so it is frequently the efficient cause of sublimity. It produces great and magnificent conceptions and sentiments, and expresses them in language bold and elevated, in sentences concise, abrupt, and energetic. "JEHOVAH reigneth; let the people tremble: "He sitteth upon the cherubim; let the earth be moved."7 "The voice of JEHOVAH is upon the waters : "The God of glory thunders: "JEHOVAH is upon the many waters. "The voice of JEHOVAH is full of power; "The voice of JEHOVAH is full of majesty." "Who is like unto thee among the gods, O JEHOVAH ! "Who is like unto thee, adorable in holiness! "Fearful in praises, who workest wonders! "Thou extendest thy right hand; the earth swalloweth them." 7 PSAL. XCIX. 1. PSAL. XXIX. 3, 4. 9 EXOD. XV. 11, 12. |