The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: which engender them; and am generally so struck with the great
works of nature, that for my own part, if I could help it, I never
would make a comparison less than a mountain at least. All that
can be said against the French sublime, in this instance of it, is
this: - That the grandeur is MORE in the WORD, and LESS in the
THING. No doubt, the ocean fills the mind with vast ideas; but
Paris being so far inland, it was not likely I should run post a
hundred miles out of it, to try the experiment; - the Parisian
barber meant nothing. -
The pail of water standing beside the great deep, makes, certainly,
but a sorry figure in speech; - but, 'twill be said, - it has one
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