Burke, Edmund. 1909-14. On the Sublime and Beautiful. Columbia Encyclopedia World Factbook American Heritage Coll. On the Sublime and Beautiful. The Harvard Classics.
All colours depend on light.
With regard to light, to make it a cause capable of producing the sublime, it must be attended with some circumstances, besides its bare faculty of showing other objects. Mere light is too common a thing to make a strong impression on the mind, and without a strong impression nothing can be sublime. But such a light as that of the sun, immediately exerted on the eye, as it overpowers the sense, is a very great idea. A quick transition from light to darkness, or from darkness to light, has yet a greater effect. But darkness is more productive of sublime ideas than light.