LECTURE IV,

THE SUBLIME IN WRITING.

JtIaVING treated of Grandeur or Sublimity j,in external objects , the way feems now to becleared, for treating, with more advantage, ofthe defcription of fuch objects; or, of what iscalled the Sublime in Writing . Though it mayappear early to enter on the confideration ofthis fubjedt; yet, as the Sublime is a fpecies ofWriting which depends lefs than ahy other onthe artificial embellifhments of rhetoric, it maybe examined with as much propriety here , asin any fubfequent part of thefe Ledlures.

Many critical terms have unfortunately beeriemployed , ill a fenfe too loofe and vague; nonemore fo, than that of the Sublime . Every oneis acquainted with the character of Caefar’sCommentaries j and of the ftyle in which theyare written; a ftyle remarkably pure, dimple;and elegant; but the moll remote from theSublime ^ of any of the claffical authors. Yetthis author has a German critic, Johannes Guliel-mus Bergerus, who wrote no longer ago thanVOL. h F

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IV.