Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

INTERROGATIONS.
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antithefii, efpecially where the oppofition in the words,
is nice and quaint, is apt to make ftyle unpleafing. A
maxim or moral faying very properly receives this form;
becaufe it is fuppofed to be the effed of meditation, and
is defigned to be engraven on die memory,! which re¬
calls it more eafily by the aid of contrafted expreffions.
But, where feveral fuch fentences fucceed each other;
where this is an author’s favorite and prevailing mode of
expreillon j his ftyle is expofed to cenfiire.
INTERROGATIONS and Exclamations arepaffion-
ate figures. The literal ufe of interrogation is to afk a
queftion; but, when men are prompted by paffion,
whatever diey would affirm, or deny with great eameft-
nefs, they naturally put in the form of a queftion Jlex-
preffing thereby the firmeft confidence of the truth, of
their own opinion ; and appealing to their hearers for
the impoffibility of the contrary.. Thus in fcripture 5
“ God is not a man, that he fhould lie ; nor the fon of
“ man, that he ftiould repent. Hadi he faid it ? And
“ foall he not do it ? Hath he fpokeq it ? And fhall he
“ hot make it good ?”
Interrogations may be employed in die profccution
of clofe and eameft reafoning; but exclamations be¬
long only to ftronger emotions of the mind ; to fur-
prife, anger, joy, grief, and the like. Thefe, being na¬
tural figns of a moved and agitated mind, always, when
properly employed, make us fympathife with diofe,
La.