Nor was the sublime more within their reach than the pathetic; for
they never attempted that comprehension and expanse of thought which
at once fills the whole mind, and of which the first effect is
sudden astonishment, and the second rational admiration. Sublimity
is produced by aggregation, and littleness by dispersion. Great
thoughts are always general, and consist in positions not limited by
exceptions, and in descriptions not descending to minuteness. It is
with great propriety that subtlety, which in its original import
means exility of particles, is taken in its metaphorical meaning for
nicety of distinction. Those writers who lay on the watch for
novelty, could have little hope of greatness; for great things
cannot have escaped former observation. Their attempts were always
analytic; they broke every image into fragments; and could no more
represent, by their slender conceits and laboured particularities,
the prospects of nature, or the scenes of life, than he who dissects
a sunbeam with a prism can exhibit the wide effulgence of a summer
noon.

What they wanted, however, of the sublime they endeavoured to supply
by hyperbole; their amplifications had no limits; they left not only
reason but fancy behind them; and produced combinations of confused
magnificence, that not only could not be credited, but could not be
imagined.

Yet great labour, directed by great abilities, is never wholly lost;
if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they
likewise sometimes struck out unexpected truth; if their conceits
were far fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on
their plan, it was at least necessary to read and think. No man