The Sublime: A Reader in British Eighteenth-Century Aesthetic TheoryAndrew Ashfield, Peter de Bolla Cambridge University Press, 1996 M08 15 - 314 pages This collection of texts on the Sublime provides the historical context for the foundation and discussion of one of the most important aesthetic debates of the Enlightenment. The significance of the Sublime in the eighteenth century ranged across a number of fields - literary criticism, empirical psychology, political economy, connoisseurship, landscape design and aesthetics, painting and the fine arts, and moral philosophy - and has continued to animate aesthetic and theoretical debates to this day. However, the unavailability of many of the crucial texts of the founding tradition has resulted in a conception of the Sublime often limited to the definitions of its most famous theorist Edmund Burke. Andrew Ashfield and Peter de Bolla's anthology, which includes an introduction and notes to each entry, offers students and scholars ready access to a much deeper and more complex tradition of writings on the Sublime, many of them never before printed in modern editions. |
Contents
List of Abbreviations | 1 |
from Dionysius Longinus on the sublime 1743 | 22 |
John Dennis from Remarks on a book entitled Prince Arthur 1696 | 30 |
Sir Richard Blackmore from Essays upon several subjects 1716 | 40 |
Thomas Stackhouse from Reflections on the nature and property | 49 |
Joseph Trapp from Lectures on poetry 1742 | 55 |
Joseph Addison from The spectator 17121714 | 62 |
Joseph Addison from A discourse on ancient and modern learning 1734 | 70 |
Thomas Reid from Essays on the intellectual powers of man 1785 | 178 |
James Beattie from Dissertations moral and critical 1783 | 180 |
Edinburgh and Glasgow | 195 |
David Hume from A treatise of human nature 173940 | 199 |
Hugh Blair from A critical dissertation on the poems of Ossian 1763 | 207 |
Hugh Blair from Lectures on rhetoric and belles lettres 1783 | 213 |
Henry Home Lord Kames from Elements of criticism 1765 | 224 |
Adam Smith from Essays on philosophical subjects 17581795 | 233 |
Henry Needler from The works 1724 | 80 |
Mark Akenside from The pleasures of imagination 1744 | 86 |
David Hartley from Observations on man 1749 | 101 |
Samuel Johnson from A dictionary of the English language 1755 | 111 |
James Burgh from The art of speaking 1761 | 116 |
Joseph Priestley from A course of lectures on oratory and criticism 1777 | 119 |
Frances Reynolds from An enquiry concerning the principles of taste 1785 | 124 |
Irish Perspectives | 127 |
Edmund Burke from A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas | 131 |
John Lawson from Lectures concerning oratory 1758 | 144 |
or a discourse on taste 1769 | 147 |
The Aberdonian Enlightenment | 157 |
Thomas Blackwell from An enquiry into the life and writings of Homer | 163 |
a dialogue concerning the art of | 166 |
Alexander Gerard from An essay on taste 1759 | 168 |
William Duff from An essay on original genius 1767 | 173 |
Adam Smith from The theory of moral sentiments 17591790 | 244 |
Adam Ferguson from An essay on the history of civil society 1767 | 253 |
From the Picturesque to the Political | 263 |
Sir William Chambers from A dissertation on oriental gardening 1772 | 268 |
Uvedale Price from An essay on the picturesque 1794 | 271 |
William Marshall from A review of The landscape 1795 | 276 |
William Godwin from The history of the life of William Pitt | 278 |
William Godwin from Enquiry concerning political justice 1798 | 280 |
Edmund Burke from Reflections on the revolution in France 1790 | 286 |
Edmund Burke from A letter from the right honourable Edmund Burke | 292 |
Mary Wollstonecraft from A vindication of the rights of man 1790 | 294 |
Helen Maria Williams from Letters written in France 1790 | 300 |
Helen Maria Williams from A tour in Switzerland 1798 | 303 |
307 | |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Ferguson Adam Smith admiration aesthetic agreeable appears arises astonishment attention awful beauty Burke called cause character conception consider contemplation degree delight Demosthenes discourse divine Edmund Burke eighteenth-century elevation emotion enthusiasm epic poetry essay exalted excellence excite expression fancy feel figures French revolution Further reading give grand grandeur heart heavens Helen Maria Williams Hence Henry Home Homer horror human ideas Iliad images imagination imitation kind language lofty London Longinian Longinus magnificent mankind manner means Menston ment mind moral mountains nature never noble objects observe Ossian pain painting passion perfection philosophy picturesque pleasure poet poetry present principles produce qualities raise reading activity reason render scenes Scottish enlightenment sensation sense sensible sentiments soul species spirit sublime affect surprise taste terrible terror Text theory things Thomas Reid thought tion tradition tropes University Press vast virtue William Godwin wonder words writing