*

4 HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY.

We admire the beauty of a plain or the great-nefs of a mountain, though we have feen both oft-en before, and though nothing appears to us ineither, but what we had expected with certaintyto fee.

Whether this criticifm upon the precife meaningof thefe words be juft, is of little importance. Iimagine it is juft, though I acknowledge, that thebelt writers in our language have not always madeufe of them according to it. Milton, upon the ap-pearance of Death to Satan, fays, that

The Fiend what this might be admir'd;

Admir’d, not fear’d.- : —

But if this criticifm be juft, the proper exprel-fion lliould have been wonder'd. — Dryden , uponthe difcovery of Iphigenia fteeping fays, that

The fool of nature flood with ftupid eyes

And gaping mouth, that teftified l'urprife.

But what Cimon muft have felt upon this occafioncould not fo much be Surprise, as Wonder andAdmiration. All that I contend for is, that thesentiments excited by what is new, by what isunexpe&ed, and by what is great and beautiful,are really different, however the words made ufeof to express them may sometimes be confounded.Even the admiration which is excited by beauty ,is-quite different (as will appear more fully