I have already said that of all these five conditions of the Sublime the
most important is the first, that is, a certain lofty cast of mind.
Therefore, although this is a faculty rather natural than acquired,
nevertheless it will be well for us in this instance also to train up
our souls to sublimity, and make them as it were ever big with noble
thoughts.

2
How, it may be asked, is this to be done? I have hinted elsewhere in my
writings that sublimity is, so to say, the image of greatness of soul.
Hence a thought in its naked simplicity, even though unuttered, is
sometimes admirable by the sheer force of its sublimity; for instance,
the silence of Ajax in the eleventh _Odyssey_[1] is great, and grander
than anything he could have said.

[Footnote 1: _Od._ xi. 543.]

3
It is absolutely essential, then, first of all to settle the question
whence this grandeur of conception arises; and the answer is that true
eloquence can be found only in those whose spirit is generous and
aspiring. For those whose whole lives are wasted in paltry and illiberal
thoughts and habits cannot possibly produce any work worthy of the
lasting reverence of mankind. It is only natural that their words should
be full of sublimity whose thoughts are full of majesty.

4
Hence sublime thoughts belong properly to the loftiest minds. Such was
the reply of Alexander to his general Parmenio, when the latter had