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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the effect of opiates or liquors, according to Burke?
(a) They suspend the passions by inciting a different reaction in the body.
(b) They strengthen the connection and clarity between mind and body.
(c) They harm both the mind and the body to a tragic degree.
(d) They force the body to yield to the superior power of the mind.

2. What is Burke's general opinion of linking beauty to virtue?
(a) Doing so endangers social morality because so few things are actually beautiful.
(b) Doing so corrupts our morality and taste by removing our reasoning and judgment.
(c) Doing so is a proper approach to the social construction of virtue.
(d) Doing so cements our imaginative and reasoning faculties together.

3. How does this body part produce the sense of the sublime, according to Burke?
(a) By vibrating more or less depending on the sublimity of the object.
(b) By stretching to its fullest extent in response to fear.
(c) By contracting and relaxing due to electrical stimuli.
(d) By becoming full and corpulent with the immensity of the sublime.

4. According to Burke, what parts of the mind do beautiful things engage, and how?
(a) Our defenses, through a sense of mistrust.
(b) Our hearts, through a sense of loveliness.
(c) Our fears, through a sense of terror.
(d) Our dreams, through a sense of wonder.

5. How does the view of the object in question 8 become sublime by affecting the mind?
(a) By overwhelming the judgment and the imagination.
(b) By increasing the intensity of the image through succession.
(c) By presenting the viewer with a skewed image of reality.
(d) By gradually diminishing in intensity until it is almost not visible.

6. Why is darkness shocking, according to Burke?
(a) Because darkness is inherently evil and the opponent of goodness.
(b) Because the human brain cannot compensate for darkness.
(c) Because darkness is unnatural and unwelcome.
(d) Because the eye and the body do not expect nor appreciate it.

7. Which example does Burke use to support his argument regarding the nature of darkness?
(a) A blind boy who regains his sight.
(b) A dim, murky forest fraught with danger.
(c) A solar eclipse that frightened townsfolk.
(d) A person who grew afraid of his own shadow.

8. Which of the following does Burke assert about beauty?
(a) That it has nothing to do with proportion.
(b) That proportion is critical to it.
(c) That beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
(d) That it combines with proportion to create the sublime.

9. How does Burke define "blackness?"
(a) As "necessarily evil."
(b) As "increased darkness."
(c) As "partial darkness."
(d) As "potentially dangerous."

10. What size of objects does Burke consider "beautiful?"
(a) Small or diminutive.
(b) Large and imposing.
(c) Proportionate to the accepted standard.
(d) Moderate and common.

11. What does Burke expressly wish to discuss in this part of "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?
(a) The connections between the thoughts in the mind and emotions produced in the body.
(b) The usefulness of the sublime in formulating theories of art.
(c) The various manifestations of the sublime and the beautiful in early-modern England.
(d) The different cultural concepts of the beautiful in countries other than England.

12. According to Burke, why is sweetness pleasing?
(a) Because the first milk of infancy is sweet, and accustoms us to the taste.
(b) Because of the regularity and smoothness of the form of sugar.
(c) Because sweetness is a rare, and thus satisfying, sensation.
(d) Because sweetness produces much saliva in the mouth.

13. How does Burke define "love?"
(a) As the boldest and most striking of all the passions.
(b) As the natural state of human relationships with one another.
(c) As the sexual attraction between sexes.
(d) As the satisfaction the mind feels upon contemplating the beautiful.

14. What, according to Burke, must be utilized regularly lest it/they fall into disrepair?
(a) The skill of speaking another language.
(b) Dancing, fencing, and painting.
(c) The art of social conversation.
(d) The passions and the understanding.

15. What is John Locke's theory concerning darkness?
(a) Darkness represents human sin.
(b) Darkness is necessary to our ideas of death.
(c) Darkness must be feared.
(d) Darkness is not naturally terrifying.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what does Burke tie his own opinion of darkness and the sublime?

2. Which kinds of colors does Burke argue are essential to beauty?

3. What sense does Burke use to illustrate the artificial infinite?

4. Which kinds of words do not produce mental images, according to Burke?

5. To what does Burke oppose delicacy and fragility?

(see the answer keys)

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