ts, does not readily arrive at their
bounds; it has no rest, whilst it contemplates them; the image is much
the same everywhere. So that everything great by its quantity must
necessarily be one, simple and entire.

SECTION XI.

THE ARTIFICIAL INFINITE.

We have observed that a species of greatness arises from the artificial
infinite; and that this infinite consists in an uniform succession of
great parts: we observed too, that the same uniform succession had a
like power in sounds. But because the effects of many things are clearer
in one of the senses than in another, and that all the senses bear
analogy to and illustrate one another, I shall begin with this power in
sounds, as the cause of the sublimity from succession is rather more
obvious in the sense of hearing. And I shall here, once for all,
observe, that an investigation of the natural and mechanical causes of
our passions, besides the curiosity of the subject, gives, if they are
discovered, a double strength and lustre to any rules we deliver on such
matters. When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a
single pulse of the air which makes the ear-drum and the other
membranous parts vibrate according to the nature and species of the
stroke. If the stroke be strong, the organ of hearing suffers a
considerable degree of tension. If the stroke be repeated pretty soon
after, the repetition causes an expectation of another stroke. And it
must be observed, that expectation itself causes a tension. This is
apparent in many animals, who, when they prepare for hearing any sound,
rouse themselves, and prick up their ears; so that here the effect of
the sounds is considerably augmented by a new auxiliary, the
expectation. But though after a number of strokes, we expect still more,
not being able to ascertain the exact time of their arrival, when they
arrive, they produce a sort of surprise, which increases this tension
yet further. For I have observed, that when at any time I have waited
very earnestly for some sound, that returned at intervals, (as the
successive firing of cannon,) though I fully expected the return of the
sound, when it came it always made me start a little; the ear-drum
suffered a convulsion, and the whole body consented with it. The tension
of the part thus increasing at every blow, by the united forces of the
stroke itself, the expectation and the surprise, it is worked up to such
a pitch as to be capable of the sublime; it is broug