What is the difference between the beautiful and the sublime in the gothic novel?

If I say the word beautiful, what is the main idea that comes to your mind? Keep that, and now think about something else, like being in front of a huge mountain or building, or if you prefer in front of the sea. At first, you will just imagine the beauty of nature or the work of human skills. However, you have to think even more about that. In all of these cases, you are in front of something you cannot control, something that is bigger than you and that fascinates and overwhelms you at the same time. Well, this is the main difference between sublime and beautiful. Another way of understanding that, is to think about being on the edge of a cliff, looking down over a ravine. Well, this certainly will thrill you, and what the gothic authors conceived as sublime was exactly this passive experience of death, that makes you be afraid but at the same time safe.