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영어

This article discusses how James Thomson’s The Seasons reflects the idea of “the sublime,” in terms of its psychological effect of terror, engendered by the descriptions of nature with reference to the new concept of light. In The Seasons the sublime is portrayed in storms, earthquakes, terrifying wild beasts, and all the other awe-inspiring characteristics of the natural world. Because of either magnificence or horror, the presence of light invokes sublimity, while the privation, or absence of light, signifies terror. Thomson shows this idea through the “parching” sun and pain-giving light of the sun in the equatorial zone, describing how height and excess can create pain. Through the terror-evoking descriptions, Thomson, by presenting both the positive and negative aspects of nature, emphasizes the fact that the terrible aspects of nature help show the greatness of the Creator and the inscrutability of His ways. Thus, Thomson concludes The Seasons with a “Hymn,” in which he expresses the theme of the revelation of God which is emerges in the harmonious universe, and of the gory due to the Creator of such sublime nature.