lexander Gerard, in 1759, attempted both to describe sublimity in terms of qualities, the method usually reserved for discussions of the beautiful, and to explain the psychological reaction to the sublime qualities: "Objects are sublime, which possess quantity, or amplitude. and simplicity, in conjunction.... When a large object is presented, the mind expands itself to the extent of that object, and is filled with one grand sensation, which totally possessing it, composes it into a solemn sedateness and strikes it with deep silent wonder and admiration: it finds such a difficulty in spreading itself to the dimensions of its object, as enlivens and invigorates its frame: and having overcome the opposition which this occasions, it sometimes imagines itself present in every part of the scene which it contemplates; and from the sense of this immensity, feels a noble pride, and entertains a lofty conception of its own capacity" (An Essay on Taste, Intro. Walter J, Hipple, 3rd ed (1780), University of Florida Press: Gainesville, 1963, 11
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