This short essay called "On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror'' was written by Anna Laetitia Aikin (later to become Barbauld after marrying Rochemont Barbauld) and her brother John Aikin. The essay focuses on gothic literature and the sublime of horror. The central question of this essay is why terror/horror is so appealing to people, causing them to seek out scary literature. 

The essay begins in the first paragraph by explaining that horror serves the moral purpose of creating sympathy for the characters. They argue that pain the reader feels for the characters is alleviated by the virtue of sympathy and what remains is pleasure. This pleasure, the essay states, leads people to want to read horror stories again and again, rather than leading to disgust and repulsion. However, the issue the essay raises is that people are finding gothic literature pleasurable when it is not for moral reasons such as this. 

Overall, the essay explores why individuals like to be scared by literature when it serves no moral purpose.

The essay mentions a list of past horror, talking about Greek, Roman and other tragedians, as well as old gothic romance and eastern tales. Two examples that are used are “Macbeth” and “Hamlet.” The Aikins use these examples to postulate that readers, once introduced to horror, must finish a scary story to be relieved by a resolution and satisfaction. 

“We rather choose to suffer the smart pang of a violent emotion than the uneasy craving of an unsatisfied desire”. 

This initial explanation for the appeal of horror somewhat satisfies the speaker in the essay, who describes how children are enrapt by scary stories, and mentions that he is often forced through boring or scary novels because of this feeling of needing a resolution. 

However, this initial idea doesn’t completely solve the question of why gothic literature is so popular because people continue to seek out horror even though they know it will be scary and keep them on the edge of their seats. 

So, the essay offers another, final explanation. The essay’s conclusion says that the supernatural,unexpected, scary, unrealistic, etc that the gothic is made up of- make the mind alert, stimulating the imagination to new possibilities. Horror opens up new worlds in the imagination, which is pleasant to all those that read scary stories.  

“A strange and unexpected event awakens the mind, and keeps it on the stretch; and where the agency of invisible beings is introduced, of "forms unseen, and mightier far than we," our imagination, darting forth, explores with rapture the new world which is laid open to its view, and rejoices in the expansion of its powers. Passion and fancy cooperating elevate the soul to its highest pitch; and the pain of terror is lost in amazement.” 

At the end of the essay, they provide the example of Sir Betrand to show how horror does this.