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ther employed in protecting or in alarming us, has a better title, than any thing that has yet been mentioned, to be the fundamental quality of the sublime; as, after the review which we have taken, there does not occur to us any sublime object, into the idea of which, power, strength, and force, either enter not directly, or are not at least intimately associated with the idea by leading our thoughts to some astonishing power, as concerned in the production of the object."

Surely if we transfer our thoughts from the object to the Creator, we must have lost for a time the impression of the object. I comprehend the meaning of a sublime object or style; but the sublime is never used distinctly-astonishment is always created by magnitude-I may say with Mr. Blair, that "many critical terms have unfortunately been employed in a sense too loose and vague; none more so than that of the sublime."

I never felt, as well as I remember, the emotion caused by sublimity at viewing a picture; even the wonderful falls of Niagara cannot excite emotions which at once astonish, when represented on a surface only a few inches square. Emotion is produced by dimensions. There must be magnitude-a model, a painting in miniature conveys only the pleasing emotion which beauty excites-I do not feel the emotion on reading the passage quoted from Grey in the journal of one of his tours-"On the cliffs above hung a few goats, one of them danced and scratched an ear with its hind foot, in a place where I would not have stood stock-still for all beneath the moon." Terror operated on this occasion, almost exclusively, as the idea of falling from such an eminence naturally occurredthis feeling our all-good and all-wise Creator implanted in us for self preservation-the feeling of admiration prompts us to dwell delighted upon his minute beauties, and that of astonishment leads us from his wonderful works to the great first cause-a cathedral, a pyramid, or any great production of man, may at first produce the emotion by magnitude, but it vanishes, when we analize and pursue the descending scale, to the pigmy span; whilst on the contrary, after the first impression and emotion, stronger new impressions and emotions are produced, by pursuing the ascending scale of contemplation, and we become wonder lost, in immensity, infinity and Omnipotence. Sublimity is in nature,

the effect in us. After the first emotions at viewing a cataract, when the spectator has obtained sufficient calmness to investigate his feelings, and to distinguish rocks, water and motion, he may express himself in description as I have attempted to do, after the first shock is over.

The most sublime expressions are too faint
This wondrous vast of nature to reveal,
And colours quite inadequate to paint,
Astonish'd, awe struck, I admire and feel.
What strange emotions agitate my soul,
Whilst from this rugged rock which lowers round,
I view the mighty waters ceaseless roll,
From precipice immense, to depth profound.
My ear is stunn'd with their tremendous roar,
The rocks all shake, with their concussions strong;
Whirling and foaming, furiously they pour,

Till by degrees they smoothly glide along.

Lord Kaimes has sagaciously and agreeably remarked, that designing wisdom is no where more legible than in this part of the human frame; if new objects did not affect us in a very peculiar manner, their impressions would be so slight as scarce to be of any use in life; on the other hand, did objects continue to affect us as deeply as at first, the mind would be totally engrossed with them, and have no room left either for action or reflection."

If a man upon an eminence could behold at once the sea, a mountain, and an extensive plain, I conceive that he would not feel the emotion, for the different vibrations or shocks created by different objects, would I think produce admiration, but the emotions which is the effect of unity, would not be felt.

As the world has been much gratified, and benefited by the researches and discoveries of eminent chemists, who employed various materials and combinations to produce the philosopher's stone, so are we indebted to a Burke's disquisitions, who con ceived the very essence of the sublime, to be in the terrible; to a Blair, who resolved the problem as he fancied, in the idea of mighty power; to a Stewart, who imagines it to be created by the various natural associations, founded on the physical and moral

concomitants of great altitude." The latter, indeed, has so soared to exhibit new constellations, and so penetrated to produce hidden treasures, and exhibited such astonishing copiousness and acuteness, that we may peruse and reperuse his adorned enlivening and instructive essays, though we feel not conviction; and prefer them to any simple solution and plain matter of fact: indeed, I am induced to say with Cowley,

"And I must needs, I'm sure, a loser be,

To change thee as thou'rt there, for very thee.

I have been emboldened to this investigation by the search of truth. Non Rhaetor, non Grammaticus, non magnæ scientiæ doctor, veritas sola hæc aperit fides, hæc hominum dux est atque magister.

If I have fortunately impressed the reader with a conviction that the sublime is improperly introduced to express only astonishment, I am like the boy, who, by a chance arrow, hit the mark which experienced archers had missed.

ASIATICUS.

SCIENCE-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

MR. EDITOR,

You will oblige me by laying the following question before your subscribers:

PROBLEM.

A body being left to descend by means of its own gravity, from a given point on the surface of the upper hemisphere of a given globe; it is required to determine the point, at which it will cease to touch the globe; and also that, at which it will meet the horizontal plane, on which the globe rests; without regard to friction or resistance?

NOTE. This question may be varied by finding the diameter of the globe when you have given, only the distance of the point of contact between the globe and the plane, from the spot, where a body lef1to descend from a point infinitely near the apex, will strike the plane.

Z. Z.

VARIETY.

"All pleasure consists in Variety." DR. JOHNSON.

EARL Mansfield was lord chief justice of the court of king's bench during the long period of thirty-two years. In early life he was eminently distinguished by his eloquence at the bar, as well as afterwards in both houses of parliament. When exalted to the bench, he rendered his name revered, not only by the ability and uprightness of his conduct, but by the extent of his knowledge, and the comprehensiveness of his views upon many new subjects of judicial decision. Scarcely any man of his time possessed, in an equal degree, that wonderful sagacity in detecting chicanery and artifice, in separating fallacy from truth, and sophistry from argument, which discovers, as if by intuition, the exact equity of the case. Nor was he less remarkable for his regularity, punctuality, and despatch of business, by which the suitors in his court were relieved from the tedious anxiety of suspense, so generally complained of in a court of justice. "I am informed," says sir James Burrows, who was clerk of the crown in the court of king's bench, and who, therefore, knew lord Mansfield well," that at the sittings for London and Middlesex there are not less than eight hundred cases set down in a year, and all disposed of. Upon the last day of the last term, says sir James, if we exclude such motions of the term, as by desire of the parties went over of course, there was not a single matter of any kind that remained undetermined, excepting one case, professedly postponed on account of the situation of America; and the same may be said of the last day of any former term for some years backwards." The same writer also informs us of the following most remarkable circumstance, respecting lord Mansfield's decisions; that, excepting in two cases, there had not been a final difference of opinion in the court, in any case, or upon any point whatsoever, during the long period from November 1756 to May 1776, the time of sir James's publication; and it is not less remarkable, that, except in these two cases, no judgment given in that court during the same period, has been reversed either in the exchequer chamber, or in parliament.

This great nobleman was the friend and favourite of all the wits and well principled characters of the age, and died at the advanced period of 88, regretted by all but the factious.

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When Handel's Messiah was first performed, the audience were exceedingly affected by the music in general; but when the chorus struck up "For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," they were so transported, that they all, together with the king, who happened to be present, started up, and remained standing till the chorus ended: and hence it became the fashion in England for the audience to stand while that part of the music is performing. Some days after the first exhibition of the same divine oratorio, Mr. Handel came to pay his respects to lord Kinnoul, with whom he was particularly acquainted. His lordship, as was natural, paid him some compliments on the noble entertainment which he had lately given the town. My lord, said Handel, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wish to make them better. These two anecdotes I had from lord Kinnoul himself. You will agree with me, that the first does great honour to Handel, to music, and to the English nation. The second tends to confirm my theory and sir John Hawkins's testimony, that Handel, in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, must have been a pious man.

During my residence in the Hague, I was witness to a circumstance, which I could not otherwise have believed, respecting the price of flowers in Holland. I saw four hundred and seventy-five guineas offered and refused for a hyacinth. It was, to be sure, the most charming flower that ever was seen: it belonged to a florist at Haarlem, and another florist offered this price for it. The reason which the owner assigned for refusing the offer was, that his hyacinth was known to all the amateurs of Europe, and that he sold the bulbs every year for more than the interest of five hundred guineas. These bulbs produced the same sort of flower in all its beauty.

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The abuse of authority by those whom madame du Barry favoured, the dismission of the duke de Choiseuil, and of the par

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