PART II.
SECTION I.
OF THE PASSION CAUSED BY THE SUBLIME.
The passion caused by the great and sublime in _nature_, when those causes operate most powerfully, is astonishment: and astonishment is that state of the soul in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror.[11] In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it.

Hence arises the great power of the sublime, that, far from being produced by them, it anticipates our reasonings, and hurries us on by an irresistible force.

Astonishment, as I have said, is the effect of the sublime in its highest degree; the inferior effects are admiration, reverence, and respect.
SECTION II.
TERROR.
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as _fear_.[12] For fear being an apprehension of pain or death, it operates in a manner that resembles actual pain.

Whatever therefore is terrible, with regard to sight, is sublime too, whether this cause of terror be endued with greatness of dimensions or not; for it is impossible to look on anything as trifling, or contemptible, that may be dangerous.

There are many animals, who, though far from being large, are yet capable of raising ideas of the sublime, because they are considered as objects of terror.