A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke

First published in 1756, then republished with significant additions the next year, Edmund Burke's 'A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful' is a seminal work in the subject of aesthetics. What characteristics and attributes do things we universally call "beautiful" possess? So also, whatever else we might call what Burke categorizes as "sublime," there is something about great and terrible mountains and dangerous creatures which is of an entirely different quality and nature from those things which we call pretty and sweet. Not in a hurry, nor even promising that we will know the thing as well at the end as we will possess greater humility in having faced the daunting challenge of trying to understand better, Burke infuses his exploration of the topic with a love for truth, goodness, and beauty which itself embodies both stylistically and symbolically in this work the same qualities he is endeavoring that we all grasp with greater appreciation. "We must not attempt to fly, when we can scarcely pretend to creep." That is, Burke bids us stop and smell the roses here. Appreciate the thorns as well, whatever you call the flower known commonly as a rose. In so doing, we will find that all the other sciences - since there is a kind of science to this appreciation of the beautiful and the sublime - will see their illiberal quality otherwise lessened and moderated with a fuller and more soulful humanity. Seeing what comes of the stubborn relativizing and purely materialistic trivializing of all that is wild and wonderful, Burke here can help us to regain our civilization. By that I mean that Burke's 'A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful' really is a fine example of a civilized gentlemen. And if we would learn to be more civil relative our enjoyment of aesthetics, we can look to not only what he is saying in substance but also the manner in which we gracefully explores it here. Dare I say it, we could all stand much more of this kind of civility and gentlemanliness, this combination of intellectual humility and spiritual confidence, and should study to acquire and embody it ourselves as he did in our own contexts and today.