The exposition opens in a highly classical way of writing that was beginning

its development at the time and consists of four parts: "Exordium, Narrative,

Proof and Peroration" (Arieti xi). Longinus of course begins first by

addressing it to Caecillius, moving to the purpose of writing the exposition,

providing proof for his claims and of course the eventual closing arguments.

He cites that sublimity is first and foremost an art and that in any treatise

there should be two rules. The first rule that is always necessary is that

there needs to be a discussion of a specific means of achievement of the

particular goal. The necessary discussion that follows would be that the end

(goal) must be made evident and connected to the means of achievement.

Thus, Longinus begins his successful attempt at explaining how sublimity

can be achieved and acquired, (meaning that it is teachable). He begins

with a simple premise that the element of Sublimity is produced either by

nature or by art and that generally speaking, art is an improvement upon

nature. This premise is not difficult to accept for either side - however,

Caecillius believes that Genius (one of the elements needed for sublimity as

he feels), is innate or naturally occurring and that the natural is actually

spoiled by art because of how systematic art can be. Longinus' refutation of

this point states that Nature itself can be systematic and that "there are no

arts of doing badly what nature can do well" (Olson). Longinus cleverly sets

up his own argument by refuting the point of Caecillius piece by piece,

showing that his own theory is the right one through logical syllogisms.

After establishing the case that the Sublime is something that can be taught

and is an art form, Longinus, just like many of the anti-sophists, defines

Sublimity as an art form which is actually separate from mere rhetoric, with

which it might so easily be confused. He separates the two by defining it as a

function of three of the most important elements that a work needs to have

in order to be considered "sublime."

The initial element is the author. During some of the research

conducted using volumes of classical and medieval literature criticisms, this

author found that essentially, Longinus described sublimity as "that which

constituted the greatest poets and prose writers in their high place and gave

them their fame" (Olson). The next element is audience which is seen as the

target of the desired sublime effect. The difference between sublimity in

rhetoric especially focused on the idea of audience because in mere rhetoric,

the ultimate goal was to persuade. The ending results of sublimity in

audience was something that Longinus called "transport." While the human

body and or mind is prone to persuasion, the notion of transport is meant to

be irresistible - something the audience was powerless to stop. The last

element was the actual work it self which mostly concentrated on the

elements of style used within it. In this way, Longinus was able to set his

"art" apart from mere rhetoric and set it above most others to show its use

in conveying abstractions that were thought to be beyond the ability of

expression. In a very interesting definition of what she thought Longinus

considered sublimity to be, Dr. Janice Patten writes (on her website), that

"The sublime is that which defeats every effort of sense and imagination to

picture it. It is that whose presence reduces all else to nothingness. It can be

defined and described only in symbolic terms..."

A reader may ask, "what does that actually mean?" In order to

answer this question, it is necessary to take an in-depth look at sublimity

through its relationship with audience and transport. General sublimity is

defined as something awe-inspiring, something of high spiritual, moral or

intellectual work. Longinus felt that a large part of a great work was its

ability to explain the awe-inspiring and make the audience feel it. Thus,

transport became a term used to describe the feeling that the audience

reached through the reading of certain language so as to make them

actually understand sublimity of the given topic. For example, if you were to

describe the sublimity of a storm, you would need to use certain elements of

language and figures of speech that would "transport" the audience to

actually being in the storm and sensing it all around them. This connection

that the author needed to have with the audience was essential for Longinus'

definition of sublimity. It could not however be what he deems "false wit."

False wit is a simple over statement of situations in order to attain sublimity.

It is an overt display of "unintelligible emotion;" and since non-truth is not

welcome in the art of sublimity as it is in rhetoric, it is not conducive to

achieving sublimity within a work. He could not stress enough in the fact

that he wanted the art of sublimity to keep its moral integrity and did not

want to use it for simple trickery.

Longinus' main contribution to the definition of sublimity and why

classes study him today was in the area of Style. Style is a subject which he

tackles in regards to his third element of sublimity, the work. Instead of

using the word style however, Longinus chooses to regard it as passion

which is exactly what Herrick talks about in regards to the "Power of

Expression." This area is seen as having the most concrete points as well as

some of the more gray area ones. Longinus decides that sublimity is also a

function of great conception, (Invention), which is an innate trait within a

human coupled with the person's passion (Delivery). On page 112 of History

and Theory of Rhetoric, Herrick cites that Longinus concentrated on 5

elements of great writing. The first being Vigor of mental conception,

something covered by the innate skills granted by G-d. Next on the list was

Strong and inspired emotions - a skill that is also possibly innate but can be

acquired. The next three are the ones that Longinus is most famous for -

Devices which enhance expression, Word Choice and Arrangement of words.

In essence Longinus combines delivery and style and calls this new element

"Skill with Figures."

Of course, just like any other good philosopher and human, he begins

to sub-classify his figures so as to separate them from one another. The skill

with figures is actually four-fold. There are figures of thought which are

nothing more than the ability to bring up good examples and effectively

work them in to prove your point. Longinus took a particular liking to

Sappho, a Greek Female poet who often used the example of the "emotions

that accompany the frenzy of love" (Herrick, 112). Another division which

surfaced was the words which were in relations with one another. Although

this sounds somewhat ridiculous to think about because all words have some

sort of relationship with one another, Longinus was specifically talking about

figurative and illustrative language such as metaphor and simile. His most

famous term, and the one he is credited for inventing is of course Asyndeton,

which makes the audience feel as though they are being hurried and rushed

through a list of events or objects by excluding words like "and." If we go

back to our example of describing the sublimity of a storm, an asyndeton

would be a highly effective tool in attaining the transport that Longinus

would have wanted, by making the audience feel the rush and frenzy that

comes with being in a storm. It is here that elements such as word choice

become important. If you choose a word with a negative connotation to

describe something positive, you will obviously not achieve the desired

transport effect. Lastly the delivery portion of figures of speech come into

effect with the combination of words and the collection of syllables which

are significant of rhythm and harmony.

By conducting this massive classification of words, phrases, and the

definition of sublimity, Longinus opened the door to a new genre of writing

as well as a new way of thinking about literature in general. He opened the

door to the modern world of critical theory and general literary criticism by

critiquing arguments presented by Caecillius. Literary criticism was now to

become the careful analysis of texts and how they achieve their effects on an

audience. A modern translation of sublimity within a literary criticism

setting would ask the question "What makes this particular work good /

bad / interesting? With Longinus focusing on one or a few elements such as

use of clever wording to achieve transport, new critics decided to look at

other elements of literature to discuss and decide whether it was good or

not. Some critics decided to take a psychoanalytic approach - using the

author's inner psyche and motives to decide whether or not the referenced

material had merit. Others decided that a big portion of what differentiated

a good work from a bad one was form - something completely devoid of all

and any historical and or personal background with regards to when the

certain piece was written. In truth, Longinus did not simply provide the

world with a concept of sublimity, but rather a transcendent idea of looking

at literature and defining its characteristics, whether they be lexical, (use of

figures of speech), or motivational (purpose for writing certain

stories/thesis/etc), and that is something that the world will use for a long

time.