DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48954#0231
Ch. IV. GRANDEUR. AND SUBLIMITY. 2 15
deur is satissied with a less degree of regularity
and of the other qualities mentioned, than is re-
quisite for beauty; which may be illustrated by
the following experiment. Approaching to a small
conical hill , we take an accurate suxvey of every
part, and are sensible of ti e slightest deviation
from regularity and proportion. Suppolnig the
hill to be considerabiy enlarged , so as to make us
less sensible of its regularity , it will upon that
account appear less beautiful. It will not however1
appear less agreeable , because some Hight emotion
of grandeur comes in place of what is lost in beau-
ty. And at last, when the hill is enlarged to a
great mountain, the small degree os beauty that is
left, is sunk in its grandeur. Hence it is, t at a
towering hill is delightful, if it have but the 11 ght-
est resemblance of a cone ; and a chain of moun-
tains no less so, though desicient in the accuracy os
order and proportion. We require a small sur-
face to be smooth ; but in an extensive plain , con-
siderable inequalities are overlooked. in a word,
regularity, proportion , order , and color, contri-
bute to grandeur as well as to beauty ; but with a
remarkable difference , that in palling from small
to great, they are not required in the same degree
of perfeftion. This remark serves to explain the
extreme delight we have in viewing the sace os na-
ture,when susttciently enriched and diverhtied with
objefts. The bulk of the objefts in a natural land-
scape are beautiful , and some os them grand: a
deur is satissied with a less degree of regularity
and of the other qualities mentioned, than is re-
quisite for beauty; which may be illustrated by
the following experiment. Approaching to a small
conical hill , we take an accurate suxvey of every
part, and are sensible of ti e slightest deviation
from regularity and proportion. Suppolnig the
hill to be considerabiy enlarged , so as to make us
less sensible of its regularity , it will upon that
account appear less beautiful. It will not however1
appear less agreeable , because some Hight emotion
of grandeur comes in place of what is lost in beau-
ty. And at last, when the hill is enlarged to a
great mountain, the small degree os beauty that is
left, is sunk in its grandeur. Hence it is, t at a
towering hill is delightful, if it have but the 11 ght-
est resemblance of a cone ; and a chain of moun-
tains no less so, though desicient in the accuracy os
order and proportion. We require a small sur-
face to be smooth ; but in an extensive plain , con-
siderable inequalities are overlooked. in a word,
regularity, proportion , order , and color, contri-
bute to grandeur as well as to beauty ; but with a
remarkable difference , that in palling from small
to great, they are not required in the same degree
of perfeftion. This remark serves to explain the
extreme delight we have in viewing the sace os na-
ture,when susttciently enriched and diverhtied with
objefts. The bulk of the objefts in a natural land-
scape are beautiful , and some os them grand: a