•234 7'fIEORr of tht 



the more minute- and eafy (laps which thofe who are well ac- 

 euftomed to fuch reafonings quickly and eafily fupply for them- 

 lelves, and find pleafure in this quickncfs and brevity ; while, 

 on the contrary, they are tired and difgufted with that flow 

 and tedious expofition of every ftep in the reafoning, which to 

 them is needlefs, but perhaps would be neceflary for the in- 

 ftrudtion of thofe of inferior talents and knowledge. 



A GRAMMATICAL language, as quick as thought, and as 

 concife as natural language, is manifeftly unattainable. But 

 every approximation to it is valuable. All the moods of verbs, 

 even the indicative and the fimple fubjundive, are fuch ap- 

 proximations. 



If thefe obfervations be true, with refped to the indicative 

 and fimply fubjundlive mood, and the plain and tranquil ex- 

 preflion of mere propofition, how much more important and 

 ftriking muft the correfponding differences be, between the 

 concife and quick expreffions of fuch interefting and animated 

 combinations of thoughts, as interrogation, command, wifli, 

 ^c. by the grammatical moods of verbs, and the flow, languid 

 'enunciations of the fame or fimilar thoughts, by circumlocii,- 

 •«idn and the ufe of additional verbs ? 



There is a jufl; and beautiful obfervation of Longinu'S, 

 'relating to this fubjed, which will fairly admit of much more 

 extenfive application than he has made of it, and is in truth 

 more important than he feems to have been aware of. He 

 takes notice of interrogation as a figure of rhetoric, by which 

 an orator endeavours to render the expreflion of his thoughts 

 more animated and forcible. T< V mava, (puf^iv rug wivtrug -n »ut. 

 tPUTtia-fig i Mfet, ax, ccvnttg raig ruii a-y/ii/^ovriuv ei^ovoi'iaig -tcu^o.'koKv 

 twKPf)^n,Toripo. Kai <ro(Ba^ari^u trvvriivii roc Xiyof/^svot, ; LoNGINUS de 

 Siiblim. Se(5\. xviii. This opinion he illuftrates, in fome mea- 

 fure, by the manner in which he exprelTes it, namely, by the 

 ufe of the very figure of interrogation of which he is treating ; 

 and dill better by a very apt quotation from the firft Philippic 



o£ 



