Owen—Interrogative Thought—Means of Its Expression. 407 
TTie effort of another implies solicitation: 
(1) extra-linguistic. 
(2) linguistic. 
In other words, the chance that you will help me mend a con¬ 
ception without request (or some equivalent) from me to do so, 
is too small to be considered. Extra-linguistic means of prompt¬ 
ing you to effort, I neglect in favor of the linguistic; and of 
these again I shall examine those alone which are direct and 
special, excluding every indirect appeal “to whomsoever it may 
concern” and every standing, hourly operative “Please help the 
blind!” 
Linguistic solicitation may be inferential or explicit. 
(а) Inferential: 
That human ingenuity, under stimulus of sore need, should 
hit upon many ways of obtaining knowledge, without over-step¬ 
ping the bounds above established, would seem to be a foregone 
conclusion. Of possible expedients I wall exhibit a few, mak¬ 
ing use of an illustration which, easily bends itself to different 
forms. Supposing then that I do not know, but wish to know 
from you, the cause of Brown’s ill-humor, I might say merely 
that 
(1) “Brown is ill-humored,” relying on this announcement 
to stimulate you to an explanation of his temper. Better yet 1 
might say that 
(2) “I don’t know the cause of Brown’s ill-humor,” or 
(3) “T doubt the cause of Brown’s ill-humor.” I might also 
succeed with 
(4) “Something is the cause of Brown’s ill-humor,” or 
(5) “-is the cause of Brown’s ill-humor,” or merely 
(б) “The cause of Brown’s ill-humor.” I might, moreover, 
start, you with a proposition of alternatives, as 
(7) “Grout to be or not to be the cause of Brown’s ill-humor.” 
I might also feebly announce that 
(8) “I suppose that gout is the cause of Brown’s ill-humor,” 
or flatly declare that 
(9) “Gout is the cause of Brown’s ill-humor.” If neither 
of these aroused, you, because you share the opinion expressed, 
I might rely on your antagonism to bring you out of your shell, 
on substituting 
