some Simple Emotion, or the exercise of some moral Affection; and 2dly, the consequent Excitement of a peculiar Exercise of the Imagination; that these concomitant effects are distinguishable, and very often distinguished in our experience; and that the peculiar pleasure of the BEAUTIFUL or the SUBLIME is only felt when these two effects are conjoined, and the Complex Emotion produced.

The prosecution of the Subject will lead to another Inquiry of some difficulty and extent, viz. into the origin of the Beauty and Sublimity of the Qualities of MATTER. To this subordinate Inquiry I shall devote a separate Essay. I shall endeavour to shew that all the Phenomena are reducible to the same general Principle, and that the Qualities of Matter are not beautiful or sublime in themselves, but as they are, by various means, the Signs or Expressions of Qualities capable of producing Emo

tion.

II. From this Examination of the EF. FECT I shall proceed, in the SECOND PART, to investigate the CAUSES which are productive of it; or, in other words, the Sources of the Beautiful and the Sublime in Nature and Art.

In the course of this investigation I shall endeavour to shew, 1st, That there is no single emotion into which these varied effects can be resolved; that on the contrary, every simple emotion, and therefore every object which is capable of producing any simple emotion, may be the foundation of the complex emotion of Beauty or Sublimity. But, in the second place, that this complex emotion of Beauty or Sublimity is never produced, unless, beside the excitement of some simple emotion, the imagination also is excited, and the exercise of the two faculties combined in the general effect. The prosecution of the subject, will lead me to the principal object of the inquiry, to shew what is that LAW of MIND, accord

ing to which, in actual life, this exercise or employment of imagination is excited; and what are the means by which, in the different Fine Arts, the artist is able to awaken this important exercise of imagination, and to exalt objects of simple and common pleasure, into objects of Beauty or Sublimity.

In this part of the subject, there are two subordinate inquiries which will necessarily demand attention.

1. The Qualities of Sublimity and Beauty, are discovered not only in pleasing or agreeable subjects, but frequently also in objects that are in themselves productive of PAIN; and some of the noblest productions of the Fine Arts are founded upon subjects of TERROR and DISTRESS. will form, therefore, an obvious and important inquiry, to ascertain by what means this singular effect is produced in REAL NATURE, and by what means it may be produced in the Compositions of Art.

It

2. There is a distinction in the effects

produced upon our minds by objects of Taste, and this distinction, both in the EMOTIONS and their CAUSES, has been expressed by the terms of SUBLIMITY and BEAUTY. It will form, therefore, a second object of inquiry to ascertain THE NATURE OF THIS DISTINCTION, both with regard to these emotions and to the qualities that produce them.

III. From the preceding inquiries I shall proceed, in the LAST PART, to investigate the NATURE of that Faculty by which these emotions are perceived and felt. I shall endeavour to shew, that it has no resemblance to a sense; that as, whenever it is employed, two distinct and independent Powers of Mind are employed, it is not to be considered as a separate and peculiar faculty, and that it is finally to be resolved into more general Principles of our constitution. These speculations will proba bly lead to the important inquiry, whether there is any STANDARD by which the per

fection or imperfection of our sentiments upon these subjects may be determined ; to some explanation of the means by which Taste may be corrected or improved; and to some illustration of the PURPOSES which this peculiar constitution of our nature serves, in the increase of human HAPPINESS, and the exaltation of human CHARACTER.

I feel it incumbent on me, however, to inform my Readers, that I am to employ, in these inquiries, a different kind of evidence from what has usually been employed by writers upon these subjects, and that my illustrations will be derived, much less from the compositions of the Fine Arts than from the appearances of common nature, and the experience of common men. If the Fine Arts are in reality arts of imitation, their Principles are to be sought for in the subject which they imitate; and it is ever to be remembered, "That Music, Ar"chitecture, and Painting, as well as Poe