The third circumstance I took notice of was importance,the appearance of which always tends,by fixing attention more closely,to add brightness and strength to the ideas. The importance in moral subjects is analagous to the quantity of matter in physical subjects, as on quantity the moment of moving bodies in a great degree depends. An action may derive importance from its own nature, from those concerned in it as acting or suffering, or from its consequences. It derives importance from its own nature, if it be stupendous in its kind, if the result of what is uncommonly great, whether good or bad, passion or invention, virtue or vice, as what in respect of generosity is godlike, what in respect of atrocity is diabolical: it derives importance from those concerned in it, when the actors or the sufferers are considerable, on account either of their dignity or of their number, or of both: it derives importance from its consequences, when these are remarkable in regard to their greatness, their multitude, their extent, and that either as to the many and distant places affected by them, or as to the future and remote periods to which they may reach, or as to both.
All the four remaining circumstances derive their efficacy purely
from one and the same cause, the connexion of the subject with
those occupied, as speaker or hearers, in the discourse. Self
is the centre here, which hath a similar power in the ideal world
to that of the sun in the material world, in communicating both
light and heat to whatever is within the sphere of its activity,
and in a greater or less degree according to the nearness or remoteness.
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