GerardのAn Essay on TasteとWordsworth

Abstract

This paper deals with the comparison between Gerard's thought on Sublimity and Beauty in his An Essay on Taste, and Wordsworth's thought on those. Gerard discusses the joys of Sublimity and Beauty. He says we are pleased to find our faculties excellent when we face sublime or beautiful objects. In Wordsworth's case, our faculties sleep when we face those objects and feel pleasure. There is a difference between their thoughts about "ego." Wordsworth considers that the "ego" is dual. His pleasure arises from the deep and divine "ego." Then Gerard distinguishes Sublimity and Beauty, but thinks that they exert reciprocal influences on each other. Those qualities exist in the same object in Wordsworth, too. But Wordsworth says that they do not affect our minds at the same time. Taking Wordsworth's words into consideration, we had better think that Wordsworth's two qualities in the same object are similar to Gerard's "principal" and "subordinate" qualities. Wordsworth's those qualities are shown as the foreground and the background in "It is a beauteous evening." And Gerard's imagination is similar to Wordsworth's. But Gerard does not think of imagination and fancy from the religious point of view. The main difference between Wordsworth and Gerard is in the difference between their religious minds.