Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

478
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source of the Sublime. If it lias been overlooked by
these, and by almost all the metaphysical writers equally,
assuredly the poets have known its value and its power.
The passages which I then quoted, were not written
without the feeling with which they are read. The re-
ception which the shade of Dido gives to jEneas, has
indeed been often noticed by the critics ; and that Virgil
knew the power of Silence and its associated images, is
proved by his mention of the " umbrse silentes," and of
the " loca nocte silentia late." That he had also united
it, in his own mind, with vacuity and space, as it is in the
scene which has led to these remarks, and had studiously
combined all these images to produce one great effect, is
shown by his describing his hero as proceeding, amid
this silence and obscurity, " per domos Ditis vacuas et
inania regna." It is the very description of Coruisk
itself; which wanted nothing but the spirits which my
seamen feared, to render it perfect. In the vision of Job,
silence is awfully used to heighten the sublimity and
terror of the impression : and the "still small voice" in
the vision of Elijah, seems to produce its effect, chiefly
by its contrast with that awful silence which there fol-
lows the whirlwind and the earthquake ; by rendering
more impressive the horror of that fearful stillness which
succeeds to the ravages of the elements. "Magnusque
per omnes, errabat sine voce dolor," says Lucan, compar-
ing the terror of Rome to the silence of the house of
mourning, "cum corpora nondum conclamatajacent," and
" funere prime attonitse tacuere domus." If the silence
of grief be sublime, it is as that of anger. " The veil of
Timanthes is the sublime of thought," says Marmontel,
" because it is a grief which finds no words." Is this
not rather another case in illustration of the same views.
But it is time for me to be silent myself, or you will think
that I have forgotten Coruisk in this metaphysical chase.