A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful • Paragraph 6
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The sublime and the beautiful, then, are two different sources of pleasure. They are distinct, and often opposite, in their causes and effects; yet they are both capable of producing emotions which we call delightful. The passion caused by the sublime is astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. The passion caused by the beautiful is love, or amiable affection; and it diminishes, at least it does not increase the activity of the mind in the same manner.