judgement upon his own faults, — which otherwise, with a consciousness of good intentions, could be easily palliated from the frailty of human nature, — is a sublime state of mind, consisting in a voluntary subjection of himself to the pain of remorse, in order that its causes may be gradually removed.

In this way religion is essentially distinguished from superstition. The latter establishes in the mind, not reverence for the Sublime, but fear and apprehension of the all-powerful Being to whose will the terrified man sees himself subject, without according Him any high esteem. From this nothing can arise but a seeking of favour, and flattery, instead of a religion which consists in a good life.

Sublimity, therefore, does not reside in anything of nature, but only in our