ridiculous. He finds Fault with the Application of Beautiful to Virtue; though it is obferved by Mr. Locke, that moft Words which denote Operations of the Mind are derived from the Objects of bodily Senfation. He then enumerates the Causes of Beauty; fuch as Smallness in the Object, Smoothness, and unwittingly allows Proportion under another Name. The View,' fays he,' of a beautiful Bird will illuftrate this Obfervation. Here we see the Head increafing fenfibly to the Middle, from whence it leffens gradually until it mixes with the Neck; "the Neck lofes itself in a larger Swell, which con'tinues to the Middle of the Body, when the • Whole decreases again to the Tail; the Tail takes "a new Direction; but it foon varies its new Course; ⚫ it blends again with the other Parts; and the Line' ⚫ is perpetually and infenfibly changing, above, below, upon every Side. In this Description I have before me the Idea of a Dove; it agrees very well with most of the Conditions of Beauty.' Here then it appears, he deceives himself with what he calls gradual Variation, which, in Fact, is another Name for Proportion. Delicacy, Colour, and Expreffion in the Countenance, he next confiders; and he obferves, that Gracefulness is an Idea belonging to Pofture and Motion. In both thefe, to be S graceful, it is requifite that there be no Appearance of Difficulty; there is required a fmall Inflection of the Body; and a Composure of the Parts, in 'fuch a Manner, as not to incumber each other, nor to appear divided by sharp and fudden Angles. In this Cafe, this Roundness and Delicacy of Attude and Motion, it is that all the Magic of Grace confifts, and what is called its fe ne fcai quoi, as will be more obvious to any Body who confiders attentively the Venus de Medicis, the Antinous, or any Statue generally allowed to be graceful in an ⚫ high Degree,'

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He then applies Beautiful to all our other Senfes ; he looks for it in Feeling, in Sounds, in Taste and Smell; and as this is ever done metaphorically in Language, it is furprising our Author would not allow the Phrafe to be tranflated to Modes of the Mind by the fame Analogy.

He then compares the Sublime and the Beautiful, and because he finds that the latter is founded on Pleasure, he imagines, by way of Contrast, that the Sublime must be founded on Pain. But we have feen in Inftances already produced (and there are numberless more) that it is alfo founded on Pleasure. However, he proceeds with his Hypothefis; he examines the vifible Effects of Pain on the human Frame: He fays, that Fear operates much in the fame Manner as pofitive Pain; and thence he infers, that whatever operates on the Nerves in a fimilar Manner, muft neceffarily excite Ideas of the Sublime; and in this Manner he accounts why Greatnefs of Dimenfion is Sublime; because," fays he, the Ray from every diftinct Point makes an Impreffion on the Retina. So that though the Image of one Point fhould caufe but a fmall Tenfion " of this Membrane, another and another, and an⚫ other Stroke, muft, in their Progrefs, caufe a very great one, until it arrives at laft to the highest Degree; and the whole Capacity of the Eye, vibra⚫brating in all its Parts, muft approach near to the Nature of what caufes Pain, and confequently muft produce an Idea of the Sublime.' But the Eye of Homer's Shepherd must have received a great Impreffion, and yet we find his Heart did not feel Terror but Gladnefs. A Stock Broker in the Alley making a long Calculation, feems to be in the Situation of a Man fuffering Pain; his Teeth are fet, his Eye-brows are violently contracted, and his Nerves feel a Contraction or a Tenfion; but we apprehend no one will fufpect that a fingle Idea of the

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Sublime ever entered his Imagination, unless the Terror he feels when the Stocks are falling may be called fo. There is no Neceffity that what borders upon Pain in its Operations on our Nerves fhould produce the Sublime; because we know that in many Cafes we may have a Tension or Contraction without adverting to it, and yet feel no elevated Emotions; as in looking at the Manfion-houfe, where' we may fatigue the Eye, but never perceive any Thing magnificent: Vastness alone not being enough to constitute the Sublime. He endeavours to refute Mr. Locke's Opinion, and afferts, that Darkness is terrible in its own Nature: To fupport which, he tells a curious Story from Chefelden, of a Boy who ❝ had been born Blind, and continued so until he was thirteen or fourteen Years old: He was then couched for a Cataract, by which Operation he "received his Sight. Among many remarkable Par❝ticulars that attended his first Perceptions and Judg'ments on visual Objects, Chefelden tells us, that the first Time the Boy faw a black Object it gave ⚫ him great Uneafinefs; and that fome Time after, upon accidentally seeing a Negroe Woman, he was • ftruck with great Horror at the Sight. It does not appear that this Boy had any Ideas of the Sublime, or that the Negroe Woman appeared magnificent in his Eyes: His Horror, we fhould think, proceeded from the Novelty of an Object fo different from his Fellow-creatures; and it does not appear that the coming on of the Night was any Way terrible to him, which we fhould imagine it would at first, if Darkness were terrible in its Nature. We are therefore ftill apt to think Mr. Locke right in making Darkness formidable from an Affociation of Ideas, and that Affociation of Ideas will help to increase the Sublime. Having difcourfed of Pain, our Author proceeds to the phyfical Cause of Love. When we have before us,' fays he, fuch Objects as ex

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'cite Love and Complacency, the Body is affected, fo far as I could obferve, much in the following 'Manner: The Head reclines fomething on one Side; the Eye-lids are more closed than usual, and 'the Eyes roll gently with an Inclination to the Object; the Mouth is a little opened, and the Breath drawn flowly, with now and then a low Sigh; the whole Body is compofed, and the Hands fall < idly to the Sides. All this is accompanied with an inward Senfe of Melting and Languor. These 6 Appearances are always proportioned to the Degree "of Beauty in the Object, and of Senfibility in the Obferver. And this Gradation from the highest Pitch of Beauty and Senfibility, even to the lowest of Mediocrity and Indifference; and their correfpondent Effects ought to be kept in view, elfe this Description will feem exaggerated, which it cer'tainly is not.' Whatever affects us in the above Manner, he proceeds to call Beautiful, in the fame Manner as he has faid the Sublime will grow on Pain. We agree with him, that the Beautiful muft depend on the fofter Affections of Love and Pleafure; for what is painful can never be accounted to belong to Beauty But the Sublime will exift with Beauty, or partial Ugliness, and may be heightened by all our Paffions as well as Terror.

Having difcuffed the Beautiful, our Author attempts to prove, that the Effects of Poetry is not by railing Ideas of Things. I fhall begin,' fays he, with compound abstract Words, fuch as Virtue, Honour, Perfuafion, Docility; of these I am convinced, that whatever Power they may have on "the Paffions, they do not derive it from any Representation raised in the Mind of the Things for which they ftand.' It is very poffible, that on hearing any one of these Words a Man may not instantly have in view all the Ideas that are combined in the complex one: As for Inftance, when

Virtue is named, he may not think of the Relations in which a Man ftands to God, his Neighbour, and himself; but he may have the general Idea of acting uprightly, and that is enough for the Poet's Purpofe. If it were true that Words revive the Senfations we originally felt, without recalling the Ideas to our Mind, D-k might be as good a Poet as Akenfide; because he might ufe all the Words that are most apt to affect us, and then he would agitate our Paffions as forcibly as a Man of Genius. He who is most picturesque and clearest in his Imagery, is ever ftiled the best Poet, because from fuch a one we see Things clearer, and of course we feel more intensely. It is a Difpofition to feel the Force of Words, and to combine the Ideas annexed to them with Quickness that fhews one Man's Imagination to be better than another's, and diftinguishes the fine Tafte from Dullness and Stupidity. Our Author would have Poetry to operate like Mufic, by Senfation: But he should recollect, that Mufic has its Effects no otherwife than by an Affociation of Ideas which it affembles in the Fancy, and by that Means it is that it depreffes us with Grief, or inflames with Rage, &c. The Inftance of Blacklock the blind Poet, ferves only to prove that Poetry may be wrote mechanically, by combining Words after the Ufage of other Writers; though it is not to be doubted but Mr. Blacklock had annexed Ideas of fome Sort in his own Mind to all the visual Objects he mentions. Our Author allows Poetry to be an imitative Art as far as it describes Manners and Paffions of Men; but fays, defcriptive Poetry operates chiefly by Subftitution, by Means of Sounds that ftand for Things. But all Words are fubftituted for Things, and there is as much Imitation in describing a Scene in Nature, as in defcribing the Actions of human Kind; for the Likeness in both Cafes is reprefented to us.

'Nothing,