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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Burke define "gradual variation?"
(a) As the rapid changes of an avid mind.
(b) As the sudden movement of line or angle.
(c) As the slight deviation of regular parts.
(d) As the general decline in beauty due to age.

2. What caveat does Burke offer to his readers about "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?
(a) He is writing for political reasons geared to sway minds.
(b) He chooses to omit most of what he truly thinks and feels regarding the sublime and beautiful.
(c) He can only study the immediately sensible qualities of the sublime and the beautiful.
(d) He bears no resemblance to any kind of contemporary scientific method.

3. How is blackness different from darkness, according to Burke?
(a) Darkness is less frightening than blackness.
(b) Blackness is more of a confined idea.
(c) Darkness does not give one a sense of the sublime.
(d) Blackness is less imposing than darkness.

4. To what does Burke tie his own opinion of darkness and the sublime?
(a) Judgment.
(b) Self-preservation.
(c) Intellectualism.
(d) Desire.

5. Which of the following does Burke assert about beauty?
(a) That it combines with proportion to create the sublime.
(b) That beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
(c) That it has nothing to do with proportion.
(d) That proportion is critical to it.

Short Answer Questions

1. Upon what does the power of poetry NOT depend, according to Burke?

2. What type of poetry operates by imitation?

3. What is Burke's argument about the relation of danger to the sublime?

4. What visual example does Burke FIRST offer in his explanation of succession and the sublime?

5. What, according to Burke, must be utilized regularly lest it/they fall into disrepair?

Short Essay Questions

1. Briefly summarize the three classes of words that Burke identifies.

2. What does Burke assert affects the mind besides natural causes, and how does this thing relate to natural causes?

3. Summarize the difference between Locke's idea of the nature of darkness and Burke's idea of the nature of darkness.

4. Why, according to Burke, are humans readily affected by the passions of others?

5. What types of sounds, smells, and tastes can be considered beautiful, according to Burke?

6. How does Burke define ugliness, and how does Burke relate ugliness to beauty?

7. According to Burke, why is the taste of sweetness pleasant, and how does he decide this?

8. What two examples does Burke use to illustrate the sublimity of succession in visual objects? Upon which principles does Burke assert these two examples operate?

9. Why are small objects more suited to the beautiful and large objects more suitable to the sublime, according to Burke?

10. What are the physical effects of fear and pain, and what is the difference between fear and pain, as observed by Burke?

(see the answer keys)

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