A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

by

Edmund Burke

 

Part I

1. Novelty
2. Pain and Pleasure
3. The Difference Between the Removal of Pain, and Positive Pleasure
4. Of Delight and Pleasure as Opposed to Each Other
5. Joy and Grief
6. Of the Passions Which Belong to Self-Preservation
7. Of the Sublime
8. Of the Passions Which Belong to Society
9. The Final Cause of the Difference Between the Passions Belonging to Self-Preservation and Those Which Regard the Society of the Sexes
10. Of Beauty
11. Society and Solitude
12. Sympathy, Imitation, and Ambition
13. Sympathy
14. The Effects of Sympathy in the Distresses of Others
15. Of the Effects of Tragedy
16. Imitation
17. Ambition
18. The Recapitulation
19. The Conclusion

Part II

1. Of the Passion Caused by the Sublime
2. Terror
3. Obscurity
4. Of the Difference Between Clearness and Obscurity with Regard to the Passions
5. The Same Subject Continued
6. Power
7. Privation
8. Vastness
9. Infinity
10. Succession and Uniformity
11. Magnitude in Building
12. Infinity in Pleasing Objects
13. Difficulty
14. Magnificence
15. Light
16. Light in Building
17. Colour Considered as Productive of the Sublime
18. Sound and Loudness
19. Suddenness
20. Intermitting
21. The Cries of Animals
22. Smell and Taste. Bitters and Stenches
23. Feeling. Pain

Part III

1. Of Beauty
2. Proportion not the Cause of Beauty in Vegetables
3. Proportion not the Cause of Beauty in Animals
4. Proportion not the Cause of Beauty in the Human Species
5. Proportion Further Considered
6. Fitness not the Cause of Beauty
7. The Real Effects of Fitness
8. The Recapitulation
9. Perfection not the Cause of Beauty
10. How Far the Idea of Beauty May be Applied to the Qualities of the Mind
11. How Far the Idea of Beauty May be Applied to Virtue
12. The Real Cause of Beauty
13. Beautiful Objects Small
14. Smoothness
15. Gradual Variation
16. Delicacy
17. Beauty in Colour
18. Recapitulation
19. The Physiognomy
20. The Eye
21. Ugliness
22. Grace
23. Elegance and Speciousness
24. The Beautiful in Feeling
25. The Beautiful in Sounds
26. Taste and Smell
27. The Sublime and Beautiful Compared

Part IV

1. Of the Efficient Cause of the Sublime and Beautiful
2. Association
3. Cause of Pain and Fear
4. Continued
5. How the Sublime is Produced
6. How Pain Can be a Cause of Delight
7. Exercise Necessary for the Finer Organs
8. Why Things not Dangerous Produce a Passion Like Terror
9. Why Visual Objects of Great Dimensions are Sublime
10. Unity, Why Requisite to Vastness
11. The Artificial Infinite
12. The Vibrations Must be Similar
13. The Effects of Succession in Visual Objects Explained
14. Locke’s Opinion Concerning Darkness Considered
15. Darkness Terrible in its Own Nature
16. Why Darkness is Terrible
17. The Effects of Blackness
18. The Effects of Blackness Moderated
19. The Physical Cause of Love
20. Why Smoothness is Beautiful
21. Sweetness, Its Nature
22. Sweetness, Relaxing
23. Variation, Why Beautiful
24. Concerning Smallness
25. Of Colour

Part V

1. Of Words
2. The Common Effects of Poetry, Not by Raising Ideas of Things
3. General Words Before Ideas
4. The Effect of Words
5. Examples that Words May Affect Without Raising Images
6. Poetry not Strictly an Imitative Art
7. How Words Influence the Passions