A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful is a 1757 treatise on aesthetics written by Edmund Burke.

In short, the Beautiful, according to Burke, is what is well-formed and aesthetically pleasing, whereas the Sublime is what has the power to compel and destroy us.

The preference for the Sublime over the Beautiful was to mark the transition from the Neoclassical to the Romantic era.