MOODS of VERBS. 257 



Go on, purfue, ajfert the facred caufe, Jand forth and 

 Jave. Jane Shore, ad 4, fc. i. 



Alas ! / never wronged you — 

 Oh ! then he good to me, have pity on me > 

 'thou never hiewjl the bitternefs of want, 

 And may''Jl thou never know it. Oh ! hejloiu 



Some poor remain 



Allow ?ne but 

 The fmalleft pittance. ASl 5. 



The genius of Sophocles and of Shakespeare, and the 

 talents of Garrick and Siddons united, could not make fuch 

 fentiments as thofe of Lear, and Othello, and Oedipus, and Lady 

 Randolph, and Jane Shore, interefting, or even tolerable, to any 

 reader or fpedtator of tafte and judgment, if they were exprefTed 

 in minute detail, by fuch circumlocutions as the grammatical 

 moods of verbs may be refolved into. 



The fined inflance that can be given, or indeed fuppofed, of 

 the truth of this principle, we have in Homer, in the admira- 

 ble fpeech of Priam to Achilles, when he goes to beg the body 

 of his fon Hedor. This fpeech has been univerfally admired, 

 as perhaps the mofl eloquent that ever was compofed. Though 

 it be exquifite in every part, the exordium, and indeed the very 

 firft fentence of it, is by far the mofl ftriking and eloquent 

 part of it. This too Homer feems to have felt and underftood 

 perfeftly ; for he makes Priam repeat the fame thought, and 

 almofl in the fame words, at the end of his fpeech, by way of 

 peroration, and with a very happy effed. When Priam enters 

 the tent of Achilles, and throws himfelf at his feet, his addrcfs- 

 to him is mofl Angularly ftriking. 



Mv>)<r«/ ■jra.T^og <ruo dioig I'Tneix.eX' Ay^iXXiu, 

 IrihiKii uff'Tti^ tyuf, oXoa ewi yri^ccog ovoa. 



Think 



