Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Longinian tradition
- Part II Rhapsody to rhetoric
- 11 The spectator, (1712-1714)
- 12 A discourse on ancient and modern learning (1734)
- 13 Characteristicks (1714)
- 14 The works (1724)
- 15 To David Fordyce, 18th June 1742
- 16 The pleasures of imagination (1744)
- 17 An essay on the sublime (1747)
- 18 Observations on man (1749)
- 19 Lectures on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews (1753/1787)
- 20 A dictionary of the English language (1755)
- 21 Conjectures on original composition (1759)
- 22 The art of speaking (1761)
- 23 A course of lectures on oratory and criticism (1777)
- 24 An enquiry concerning the principles of taste (1785)
- Part III Irish Perspectives
- Part IV The Aberdonian Enlightenment
- Part V Edinburgh and Glasgow
- Part VI From the Picturesque to the Political
- Sources and further reading
13 - Characteristicks (1714)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Longinian tradition
- Part II Rhapsody to rhetoric
- 11 The spectator, (1712-1714)
- 12 A discourse on ancient and modern learning (1734)
- 13 Characteristicks (1714)
- 14 The works (1724)
- 15 To David Fordyce, 18th June 1742
- 16 The pleasures of imagination (1744)
- 17 An essay on the sublime (1747)
- 18 Observations on man (1749)
- 19 Lectures on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews (1753/1787)
- 20 A dictionary of the English language (1755)
- 21 Conjectures on original composition (1759)
- 22 The art of speaking (1761)
- 23 A course of lectures on oratory and criticism (1777)
- 24 An enquiry concerning the principles of taste (1785)
- Part III Irish Perspectives
- Part IV The Aberdonian Enlightenment
- Part V Edinburgh and Glasgow
- Part VI From the Picturesque to the Political
- Sources and further reading
Summary
Treatise V. The moralists. A philosophical rhapsody Part III. Section 1
…Here, Philocles, we shall find our sovereign genius; if we can charm the genius of the place (more chaste and sober than your Silenus) to inspire us with a truer song of nature, teach us some celestial hymn, and make us feel divinity present in these solemn places of retreat.
Haste then, I conjure you, said I, good Theocles, and stop not one moment for any ceremony or rite. For well I see, methinks, that without any such preparation, some divinity has approached us, and already moves in you. We are come to the sacred groves of the Hamadryads, which formerly were said to render oracles. We are on the most beautiful part of the hill; and the sun, now ready to rise, draws off the curtain of night, and shows us the open scene of nature in the plains below. Begin: for now I know you are full of those divine thoughts that meet you ever in this solitude. Give them but voice and accents: you may be still as much alone as you are used, and take no more notice of me than if I were absent.
Just as I had said this, he turned away his eyes from me, musing a while by himself; and soon afterwards, stretching out his hand, as pointing to the objects round him, he began.
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- Information
- The SublimeA Reader in British Eighteenth-Century Aesthetic Theory, pp. 72 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996