| A great traveller, though in the same chamber, will pass for a very extraordinary person; as a Greek medal, even in our cabinet, is always esteemed a valuable curiosity. |
| Here the object, by a natural transition, conveys our views to the distance; and the admiration, which arises from that distance, by another natural transition, returns back to the object. |
| But though every great distance produces an admiration for the distant object, a distance in time has a more considerable effect than that in space. |
| Antient busts and inscriptions are more valued than Japan tables: And not to mention the Greeks and Romans, it is certain we regard with more veneration the old Chaldeans and Egyptians, than the modem Chinese and Persians, and bestow more fruitless pains to dear up the history and chronology of the former, than it would cost us to make a voyage, and be certainly informed of the character, learning and government of the latter. |
| I shall be obliged to make a digression in order to explain this phaenomenon. |
| It is a quality very observable in human nature, that any opposition, which does not entirely discourage and intimidate us, has rather a contrary effect, and inspires us with a more than ordinary grandeur and magnanimity. |
| In collecting our force to overcome the opposition, we invigorate the soul, and give it an elevation with which otherwise it would never have been acquainted. |
| Compliance, by rendering our strength useless, makes us insensible of it: but opposition awakens and employs it. |
| This is also true in the universe. |
| Opposition not only enlarges the soul; but the soul, when full of courage and magnanimity, in a manner seeks opposition. |
| SPUMANTEMQUE DARI PECORA INTER INERTIA VOTIS OPTAT APRUM, AUT FULVUM DESCENDERE MONTE LEONEM. |
| [And, among the tamer beasts, [he] longs to be granted, in answer to his prayers, a slavering boar, or to have a tawny lion come down from the mountain.] |
| Whatever supports and fills the passions is agreeable to us; as on the contrary, what weakens and infeebles them is uneasy. |
| As opposition has the first effect, and facility the second, no wonder the mind, in certain dispositions, desires the former, and is averse to the latter. |
| These principles have an effect on the imagination as well as on the passions. |
| To be convinced of this we need only consider the influence of heights and depths on that faculty. |
| Any great elevation of place communicates a kind of pride or sublimity of imagination, and gives a fancyed superiority over those that lie below; and, vice versa, a sublime and strong imagination conveys the idea of ascent and elevation. |
| Hence it proceeds, that we associate, in a manner, the idea of whatever is good with that of height, and evil with low. |
| ness. |
| Heaven is supposed to be above, and hell below. |
| A noble genius is called an elevate and sublime one. |