There are, one may say, some five most productive sources of the sublime in literature, the common groundwork, as it were, of all five being competence in speaking, without which nothing can be done. The first and most powerful is the power of grand conceptions:and the second is the inspiration of vehement emotion.

To miss a high aim is to fail without shame.

The other three come partly from art, namely the proper construction of figures - these being of course of two kinds, figures of thought and figures of speech …

The images make for confusion rather than forcefulness. Examine each in the light of day and it gradually sinks from the terrible to the ridiculous.