Awe of the Sublime

In 1757, the philosopher Edmund Burke published “A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.” In this book, Burke makes the case that these two major affections are considerably different, with the sublime involving more of an element of terror and the beautiful involving more an element of pure pleasure. I focus this post on Burke’s ideas about the sublime as a way to achieving insight into the emotion of awe.

Although I would consider Burke’s analysis of the sublime mostly to deal with what I would term “awe,” he states that “the passion caused the great and sublime in nature. . . is astonishment.” He defines “astonishment” as:

“. . . that state of soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. . . In this case the mind is so filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it.”

He goes on to say that “interior effects” of the sublime include “admiration,” “reverence,” and “respect.”

Much of Burke’s analysis involves his attempt to speculate on the characteristics of the sublime. These include the following:

1. Novelty.

2. Terror. Burke believes this is the essential underpinning to the sublime. He refers to other terms in this discussion including “fear,” “wonder,” “terrible,” “respectable,” “reverence,” “thunderstruck,” and “amazement.”

3. Obscurity. As he states, “when we know the full extent of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes.” For instance, Burke notes that “night adds to our dread,” and that many religious practices have been carried out in the dark.

4. Power. This, Burke believes, may relate to the feeling of possibly being hurt, which contributes to terror.

5. Privation. Here Burke refers to other terms such as “vacuity,” “darkness,” “solitude,”and “silence.”

6. Vastness. Burke hypothesizes here that “height is less grand than depth; and that we are more struck at looking down from a precipice, than at looking up at an object of equal height.”

7. Infinity. Included here is the idea of eternity.

8. Difficulty. That is, something that requires considerable effort, often correlates with the sublime.

9. Magnificence. A starry night is the example Burke provides.

10. Light. Either extreme light or darkness, Burke believes, carries with it the sublime best.

11. Color. Related to light, Burke believes that cloudiness and gloominess connote the sublime most effectively.

12. Loudness. Examples include raging storms, thunder, artillery, or the shouting of multitudes.

13. Suddenness.

Burke has many original ideas in his book, including his focus on how painting may be sublime (especially when images are obscure, dark, confused, or uncertain). He discusses how buildings may connote the sublime, particularly when greatness of dimension is present. He writes that the cries of animals may be sublime. He writes at length about how writing, particularly poetry, may be sublime.

Most surprising for me, however, was Burke’s extensive discussion of religion as a source of the sublime, as religion often brings together many of the aforementioned characteristics.

As one example, Burke quotes from the Book of Job:

“Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: ‘Can a man be more righteous than God? Can human beings be more pure than their Maker?’” (Job 4:13-17).

He comments that:

“We are first prepared with the utmost solemnity for the vision; we are first terrified, before we are let even into the obscure cause of our emotion; but when this grand cause of terror makes its appearance, what is it? Is it not, wrapt up in the shades of its own incomprehensible darkness, more aweful, more striking, more terrible, than the liveliest description, than the clearest painting could possibly represent it?”

Burke goes on to state, at length, his conclusions about the relationship between the sublime and religion:

“I know some people are of opinion, that no awe, no degree of terror, accompanies the idea of power, and have hazarded to affirm, that we can contemplate the idea of God himself without any such emotion. . . Whilst we consider the Godhead merely as he is an object of the understanding, which forms a complex idea of power, wisdom, justice, goodness, all stretched to a degree far exceeding the bounds of our comprehension, whilst we consider the divinity in this refined and abstracted light, the imagination and passions are little or nothing affected. . . Some reflection, some comparing is necessary to satisfy us of his wisdom, his justice, and his goodness; to be struck with his power, it is only necessary that we should open our eyes. But whilst we contemplate so vast an object, under the arm, as it were, of almighty power, and invested upon every side with omnipresence, we shrink into the minuteness of our own nature, and are, in a manner, annihilated before him. And though a consideration of his other attributes may relieve in some measure our apprehensions; yet no conviction of the justice with which it is exercised, nor the mercy with which it is tempered, can wholly remove the terror that naturally arises from a force which nothing can withstand. If we rejoice, we rejoice with trembling; and even whilst we are receiving benefits, we cannot but shudder at a power which can confer benefits of such mighty importance. . . In the scripture, wherever God is represented as appearing or speaking, every thing terrible in nature is called up to heighten the awe and solemnity of the divine presence. . . It were endless to enumerate all the passages both in the sacred and profane writers which establish the general sentiment of mankind, concerning the inseparable union of a sacred and reverential awe, with our ideas of the divinity.”

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