How are thy servants blest, O Lord

How are thy servants blest, O Lord.  Joseph Addison* (1672-1719). This is from The Spectator 489 (20 September 1712). In this number Addison addresses a painter. Addison is concerned with the sublime, especially as found in storms on the ocean, which he claims to have experienced on his travels: of all Objects I have ever seen, there is none which affects my Imagination so much as the Sea or Ocean... Such an Object naturally raises in my Thoughts the Idea of an Almighty Being, and convinces me of his Existence as much as a metaphysical Demonstration. The Imagination prompts the Understanding, and by the Greatness of the sensible Object, produces in it the Idea of a Being who is neither...