Longinus' "On the Sublime" is an interesting work on Classical Esthetics. His semi-Platonic literary theory sheds some interesting light on the classics of Ancient Greek Literature.
"Further, nature is the original and vital underlying principle in all cases, but system can define limits and fitting seasons, and can also contribute the safest rules for use and practice. Moreover, the expression of the sublime is more exposed to danger when it goes its own way without the guidance of knowledge,--when it is suffered to be unstable and unballasted,--when it is left at the mercy of mere momentum and ignorant audacity. It is true that it often needs the spur, but it is also true that it often needs the curb." (Chap. 2)
In Chapter 3, he discusses the three impediments to sublimity: 1- Tumidity - which a kind of pompous, overblown rhetoric; 2- Puerility, which is a kind of tawdriness and affectation; 3- Parenthyrsus of false sentiment, which is a kind of exagerated emotionalism.
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