Chapter XXXVIII (8)

We confess, in conclusion, that we are not yet disposed to admit, from any thing we have read, that Burke's "Sublime and Beautiful" is superseded. We can as readily believe that the sublime and beautiful may be reunited in one view, as that it is optional to separate them. The sublime and the beautiful both belong to us as human beings, making their sensible impressions all sources of pleasure, greatly differing in kind. It is inseparable from our condition to have a sense of a being vastly superior to ourselves: sublimity has a reference to that superior power over us, and to ourselves, as subject to it: while it renders us inferior, it lifts our minds to the knowledge of the greater. Beauty, on the contrary, seems to look up to us for aid, support, or sympathy. It thus flatters while it pleases, and, in contradiction to the subduing influence of the sublime, it makes ourselves in some respects the superior, and puts us in good humour both with the object and ourselves.

We are loath to quit this most interesting subject. We thank Mr Eastlake for bringing it so charmingly before us. We feel that our remarks have been very inadequate, both with regard to the nature of the subject, and as "The Philosophy of the Fine Arts" may seem to demand. But we are aware that to do both justice would require larger space than can be here allowed, and an abler pen than we can command. We almost fear a complete elucidation of beauty is not within the scope of the human mind. It may be to us not from earth, but from above; and we are not prepared to receive its whole truth. Burke somewhere observes that--"The waters must be troubled ere they will give out their virtues." The allusion is admirable, and justifies disturbing discussions. On such a subject, where the root of the matter grows not on earth, it may be added, in further allusion, that the stirring hand should be that of an angel.

INDEX TO VOL. LXIV.

Acting in China, 89.

Agriculture of France and England, comparison of, 3.

Alain family, the, extracts from, 560.

Algoa bay, settlement of, 159.

American thoughts on European revolutions, 31.

American war, caricatures illustrating the, 552.

Anne, queen, character of, 327.

Antwerp, a legend from, 444.

Arabian nights, the, 472.

Aristocracy, necessity of a, to Britain, 14.

Art its prospects, 145
Eastlake's literature of, 753.

Art-unions, results of, 146.

Ashley, lord, on the juvenile population, 66.

Ateliers Nationaux, sketches of the, 249.

Auersperg, count, 382, 532.

Australia, importance of, 66
demand for emigration to, 67
Mitchell's researches in, 68.

Austria, the revolution in, 519.

Baden, state of, 378.

Baikal, the lake, 88.

Balloons, rage for, 554.

Balzac, M. de, 572.

Banking act, suspension of the, 262, 263

Barbauld's hymns, 404.

Barnard's cruise, &c., review of, 158.

Bashkirs, the, 81.

Basil, letter to, 31.

Baston, Robert, 222, 223.

Bavaria, the revolution in, 518.

Beauty, Eastlake's theory of, 762.

Beaver and Beaver-stone, the, 84.

Beggar's Opera, origin of the, 336.

Belgium, state of, 521.

Bentinck, lord George, death of, 632.

Beresov, town of, 80, 81.

Bernard, Andrew, 225, 226.

Blue Dragoon, the, 207.

Blum, Robert, 532.

Bright, John, 271.

British navy, the, 595.

Buraets, the, 90.

Buried flower, the, 108.

Burke's eulogy on Walpole, 331.

Byron's address to the ocean, on, 499.

Cabrera, movement under, 630.

Caged skylark, to a, 290.

Call, a, by Julia Day, 625.

Canning, rupture of Castlereagh with, 620.

Canterbury tales, the, 466.

Cape, sketches of the, 158.

Caricatures of the 18th century, the, 543.

Caroline, queen, 331, 332, 334, _et seq._

Carpentaria, gulf of, expedition to, 68.

Castlereagh, lord, memoirs of, 610.

Catholic priesthood, proposed endowment of the, 638.

Cavaignac, general, 259.

Caxtons, the, Part IV. chap. ix., 40
chap. x., 41
chap. xi., 43
chap. xii., 44
chap. xiii., 48
chap. xiv., 50