MOODS of VERBS. 237 



Go on, purfue, affert the facred caufe, Jiand forth and 

 Jave. fane Shore, acl 4. fc. 1, 



Alas ! / never wrong d you — 

 Oh ! then be good to me, have pity on me \ 

 'Thou never knew ft the bitternefs of want, 

 And mayft thou never know it. Oh ! beftow. 



Some poor remain 



Allow me 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 fane Shore, interefting, or even tolerable, to any 

 reader or fpectator 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 fineft inftance 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 1 

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

 as perhaps the moft eloquent that ever was compofed. Though 

 it be exquinte 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 understood 

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

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

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

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

 to him is moft Angularly ftriking. 



Think 



