470 Wisconsin, Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
speech, and centering attention on mental totals expressed, I find 
the simplest form of thought considered, to be the mere con¬ 
ception of two terms and their relation, commonly further posed 
as true, or else untrue, and expressed by a merely suggestive 
(that is, an unassertive) phrase. The addition of personal 
belief produces the ordinary judgment, expressed by the merely 
assertive sentence. The intercalation of desire produces the 
imperative judgment, expressed by a pregnantly assertive sen¬ 
tence, or command. The further intercalation, expanding de¬ 
sire into desire to be told an indefinite judgment element, pro¬ 
duces an interrogative judgment, commonly expressed, according 
to the nature of the indefinite element, by one or the other of 
the examined forms of the question—both of which, however, 
rank as merely still more pregnantly assertive sentences—or, say, 
as pregnantly imperative.* 
In closing, I wish to express the keenest appreciation, that 
my own line of groping amid the obscurities offered by inter¬ 
rogation, may be very ill adapted to another mind -whose light 
is stronger. On such a mind I venture only to urge attention 
to the following probabilities: that every question (asked for 
information) presupposes that an element is more or less entirely 
missing from what might have been a prior judgment; that the 
desideratum of a question is, in the asker’s mind, an unknown 
or an ill known substitute for that missing element—that is, an 
indefinite; that the question must provide the hearer with a 
clue to this indefinite, and cannot do so, as it would appear, ex¬ 
cept by naming its definite fellow judgment-members; that 
every question naturally also exhibits the desire to be told the 
indefinite substitute; that this desire is presented as not merely 
thought of, but also actually felt; in short, it is circumstantially 
probable, that the question should in some way assert desire to 
be told the indefinite element of a thought exhibited in the form 
of a judgment. 
Madison, WisJuly, 1903. 
* I should perhaps have added elsewhere, that an imperative value 
of the question is rather strongly hinted by the tone in which it is 
sometimes uttered. Thus, to the disturber of my peace, I shout “Who ’a 
there?” in just the tones that I should use in saying “Go away!” 
