Sublime

Use in the book

The Nicole judgment separates sublime thought from what the writer says, and derived doctrinal elevation from the natural elevation of a mind. Sublimity need not therefore be reducible to verbal grandeur or native genius. Another distinction makes natural subtlety a condition of the sublime while separating it from procedural cunning, ambush and evasion. The shared word subtilité carries both a discreditable method and a fine natural constitution. The passage’s “one may even say” keeps the striking maxim at the level of a proposed formulation.

Places to read

1. II, p. 885, entry 2, ¶1Nicole’s sublimity lies in thought and doctrines rather than natural mental elevation.
2. I, p. 359, entry 3, ¶1Natural subtlety is distinguished from cunning and related to sublimity.

Translation in this edition

The English translation retains both not/but contrasts in the Nicole note and the contrast between procedural and natural subtlety. The anomalous Quand à is understood as “As for,” while the French remains unchanged. Sublime is not restricted here to one later aesthetic theory.

Grandeur

French: grandeur.

In the Tacitus note, grandeur of expression joins depth in preventing the reader from reading much, while narrative interest prevents reading little. Grandeur thus has a demanding effect on attention and can cause fatigue. It should not be reduced to length, numerical magnitude or a simple synonym for successful sublimity.

Places to read: I, p. 154, entry 6, ¶1.

Summit and leap

French: cime; saut.

The sublime is called the summit of the great, and its author walks from summit to summit. The Cicero remark adds the obstacle and leap as precisely what ease may lack. The English translation retains the concrete ascent and movement rather than reducing them to excellence. The three images do not specify a single rhetorical figure or deny every value to ease; they describe the contrast made in these short witnesses.

Places to read: I, p. 114, entry 8, ¶1; I, p. 114, entry 11, ¶1; I, p. 449, entry 6, ¶1.

Use in the book

The ocean entry gives the sharpest local definition by correcting a judgment. Guérin initially ranks the calm blue sea above stormy disorder, then withdraws the hierarchy: who could measure the two sublimities? What he can properly affirm is his soul's preference for serenity. The correction separates a personal affinity from a universal scale of value.

The storm nevertheless produces an incomparable encounter. Minute human bodies, shaken by the wind, receive a converging immensity of sound, motion, and cloud. Nature and soul appear to rise to their full height before one another. Physical smallness is real, but does not exhaust the observer's part in the scene. Agitation and deep reverie can occur together.

The term is broader than terror. Spring displays sublime conceptions alongside graceful fancies; Hugo embodies contrasting powers in sublime creation; a day of love for God and humanity offers sublime happiness. These uses prevent a reading that confines Guérin's sublime to violent landscape. Its elevation may be gentle, ethical, or artistic.

The word often reaches the threshold of expression. An overwhelming experience produces a claim of difficulty, a self-correction, or an urgent wish to record it before it disappears. Sublimity describes both extraordinary amplitude and the pressure that amplitude puts on judgment and language.

Places to read

1. 10 July 1832 · ¶1Spring freely joins sublime conception and graceful fancy, rather than separating magnitude from play.
2. 8 December 1833 · ¶1 · 1861 variantEarlier printed witness: preference for calm, the correction about two sublimities, and the embodied storm encounter form a single paragraph.
3. 8 December 1833 · ¶1The narrator retracts a ranking of calm and storm, substituting a statement of personal affinity.
4. 8 December 1833 · ¶3Small bodies receive an immense natural ensemble; agitation and reverie coexist.
5. 23 March 1834 · ¶1Sublime happiness is ethical and spiritual: felt power for goodness and love of God and humanity.

Translation in this edition

The supplied English preserves the striking plural “two sublimities.” In the 1861 witness the preference, correction, and storm encounter occupy one long paragraph; the 1864 main witness separates these rhetorical stages.

Use in the book

The father's face takes on something sublime in death, prompting René to ask whether it bears the signs of immortality. The reasoning is affective and interrogative: visible dignity becomes a possible sign, not a demonstrated proof. Likewise Italian churches produce holy and poetic awe through scale, sound and artistic embodiment.

At Etna, sublimity is organized around disproportion. The world is immense yet appears as a point beneath the observer; the crater exposes a terrifying depth beside him. René makes the image a representation of his existence, and thus risks converting a response to grandeur into a claim about his own exceptional nature.

The religious frame offers a practical alternative. The Preface describes opportunities for rare and sublime virtues in cloisters, and the superior's letter records Amélie's care for the sick. Here greatness need not depend on commanding a vast view or possessing extraordinary sensations. The book's elevated aesthetic and its moral correction therefore share a vocabulary whose applications can diverge.

Places to read

1. p. 145quelque chose de sublime — The dead father’s face prompts a question about immortality.
2. pp. 151–1522sainte et poétique horreur — The phrase spans a printed page boundary and joins religious with aesthetic awe.
3. p. 153immense et imperceptible — Scale is paradoxical rather than merely large.
4. Preface p. 13de rares et sublimes vertus — The authorial defense locates sublimity in possible conduct.

Translation in this edition

The word horreur crosses the source's pp. 151–1522 as “poé- / tique horreur”. For a continuous exact citation, consult both page segments; the isolated page-end is not a complete lexical attestation. The lexicon's discussion uses the completed phrase while keeping its textual boundary explicit.