SECTION XVII.

SOUND AND LOUDNESS.

The eye is not the only organ of sensation by which a sublime passion may be produced.  Sounds have a great power in these as in most other passions.  I do not mean words, because words do not affect simply by their sounds, but by means altogether different.  Excessive loudness alone is sufficient to overpower the soul, to suspend its action, and to fill it with terror.  The noise of vast cataracts, raging storms, thunder, or artillery, awakes a great and awful sensation in the mind, though we can observe no nicety or artifice in those sorts of music.  The shouting of multitudes has a similar effect; and by the sole strength of the sound, so amazes and confounds the imagination, that, in this staggering and hurry of the mind, the best established tempers can scarcely forbear being borne down, and joining in the common cry, and common resolution of the crowd.

SECTION XVIII.

SUDDENNESS.

A sudden beginning, or sudden cessation of sound of any considerable force, has the same power.  The attention is roused by this; and the faculties driven forward, as it were, on their guard.  Whatever, either in sights or sounds, makes the transition from one extreme to the other easy, causes no terror, and consequently can be no cause of greatness.  In everything sudden and unexpected, we are apt to start; that is, we have a perception of danger, and our nature rouses us to guard against it.  It may be observed that a single sound of some strength, though but of short duration, if repeated after intervals, has a grand effect.  Few things are more awful than the striking of a great clock, when the silence of the night prevents the attention from being too much dissipated.  The same may be said of a single stroke on a drum, repeated with pauses; and of the successive firing of cannon at a distance.  All the effects mentioned in this section have causes very nearly alike.

SECTION XIX.

INTERMITTING.

A low, tremulous, intermitting sound, though it seems, in some respects, opposite to that just mentioned, is productive of the sublime.  It is worth while to examine this a little.  The fact itself must be determined by every man’s own experience and reflection.  I have already observed, that night[22] increases our terror, more perhaps than anything else; it is our nature, when we do not know what may happen to us, to fear the worst that can happen; and hence it is that uncertainty is so terrible, that we often seek to be rid of it, at the hazard of a certain mischief.  Now some low, confused, uncertain sounds, leave us in the same fearful anxiety concerning their causes, that no light, or an uncertain light, does concerning the objects that surround us.

Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
Est iter in sylvis.