These words, taken from a report on the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, suggest that the author of this article has undergone an experience of the sublime. Unlike Edmund Burke, who considered unnecessary the “dreadful things” brought about by the French Revolution, the excited writer describes his feelings in terms of esteem and admiration. Note that the author connects the experience of the sublime to a sense of freedom and to virtue.

In some ways Kant has a similar response to the events in France. To be sure Kant, unlike the author, did not witness first hand the events of the French Revolution. But the interest that Kant displays in The Conflict of the Faculties is morally based in the sense articulated in chapter 4. In fact, Kant connects the sublime not just to the sense of freedom of the individuals feeling the sublime, but even to the moral character of the human species as a whole.