[Analysis.-1. Interrogation and Exclamation used as figures of thought.-2. They add force to declaration.-3. They operate by sympathy.-4. Rules for their use.5. Sublimity of Exclamation: HAMLET'S DESCRIPTION OF MAN.-6. Exclamation directed by the nature of the passion: OTHELLO'S JOY.-7. How affected by extreme sorrow: LADY CONSTANCE.-8. By slight sorrow, or pleasing melancholy: COUNT ORSINO.-9. By contemptuous reproach: LADY MACBETH.-10. Assertion of truth by Interrogation: PSALMS.-11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. God's wisdom and power, as shown in his works, asserted by Interrogation: JOB.-16. The conspirator Catiline.-17, 18. CICERO'S SPEECH AGAINST.]

1. BOTH interrogation and exclamation are often used as figures of thought; and although the literal use of the former is to ask a question, yet it is also the native language of passion; for whatever men would affirm or deny with great earnestness, they naturally put in the form of a question; expressing, thereby, the strongest confidence in the truth of their sentiments, and appealing to their hearers for its confirmation.

2. Thus, what additional force is given to the following declaration of the unchangeableness of the Almighty by the questions at its close. "God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said it, and shall he not do it'1? or hath he spoken' it, and shall he not make it good' ?" Interrogation becomes a figure of thought only when it serves the purpose of strong declaration.

3. Interrogation may often be used with propriety where there are no higher emotions than such as naturally arise in pursuing some close and earnest reasoning; but exclamation belongs to the stronger or deeper feelings; and yet not only to surprise, admiration, joy, grief, and anger', but also to pathetic appeals, and to the expression of any intense conviction. Both, being natural signs of a moved and agitated

mind, operate upon us by means of sympathy; and, when they are properly used, they dispose us to enter into every feeling and passion which we behold expressed by others.

4. With interrogations a writer may use much freedom, inasmuch as they fall in with the ordinary course of language and reasoning, even when no excess of feeling is supposed to have place in the mind; but with exclamations a writer must be more reserved, as nothing has a worse effect than the frequent and unreasonable use of them. When inappropriate when they do not arise naturally out of the subject, they fail to enlist our sympathy, and render a writer frigid to excess. An author who fails in their use, and who subjoins them to sentences which contain nothing but simple affirmations or propositions, gives us words, and not passion; and as he raises no passion in return, he fills us with indignation.

5. In the following example, in which exclamation is combined with climax, and used in description, this figure of speech, so appropriate to the elevated character of the subject, rises to the highest pitch of sublimity. "What a piece of work is man'! how noble in reason'! how infinite in faculties'! in action', how like an angel'! in apprehension', how like a god!" (SHAKSPEARE'S Hamlet, Act II., Scene 2.)

6. It should be remarked that inasmuch as exclamation is used for all kinds and degrees of passion, so the nature of the passion must direct both the tone and the inflection of the voice. Hence, when Othello, after his escape from the tempest, meets Desdemona, unexpected joy elevates his voice to the highest pitch of exclamation:

Oh my soul's joy110!

If after every tempest come such calms',

May the winds blow till they have waken'd death'1o!

SHAKSPEARE'S Othello, Act II., Scene 1.

7. Extreme sorrow likewise adopts this figure, and raises the voice into a high tone, as in the language of Lady Constance, when accused of uttering madness.

were !

I am not mad-I would to heaven I 110

For then', 'tis like', I should forget' myself:
Oh', if I could', what grief' should I' forget'1o!

SHAKSPEARE'S King John, Act III., Scene 4.

8. And again, a slight degree of sorrow, or pleasing melancholy, adopts the exclamatory figure, but in a soft middle tone, as when the Duke, in Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, relieving his melancholy with music, says:

That strain again! it had a dying fall'!

Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets',

Stealing', and giving odor'!-Act I., Scene 1.

9. But the language of contemptuous reproach and impatience uses the exclamation in a harsh but lower tone of voice; as when Lady Macbeth reproaches her terror-stricken husband, who shrank from the ghost of Banquo, that had taken Macbeth's place at table.

Oh proper stuff11o !

This' is the very painting' of your fear':
This is the air-drawn dagger', which, you said,
Led you to Duncan'. Oh, these flaws and starts
(Impostors to true fear) would well become
A woman's story at a winter's fire,

Authorized by her grandam'! Shame itself 10!
Why do you make such faces'? When all's done',
You look but on a stool'!

SHAKSPEARE'S Macbeth, Act III., Scene 4.

10. In the following examples, interrogation, departing from its literal use, asserts important truths with much greater force than could be given to them by the most positive affirmation. In proclaiming God's goodness and mercies, the Psalmist says: "Will the Lord cast off forever'1? and will he be favorable no more'1? Is his mercy clean gone forever'1? doth his promise fail forevermore'? Hath God forgotten to be gracious'? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies' ?"—Psalm lxxvii., 7-9.

11. It is also in the forcible language of interrogation that the Lord, answering Job out of the whirlwind, declares the wisdom and power of the Almighty, as shown in his works, and the weakness and ignorance of man. The changes from interrogation to affirmation give additional beauty and effect to the striking pictures here presented.

GOD'S WISDOM AND POWER, AND MAN'S WEAKNESS AND IGNO

RANCE.

12. "Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow'1? or will he harrow the valleys after thee'1? Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great'1? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him'1? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn'1?

13. "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks'? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich'? which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them? She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers: her labor is in vain without fear; because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.

14. "Hast thou given the horse strength'1? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder'1? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper'? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armeda men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

15. "Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south"? Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high"? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

16. "Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook"1? or his

ARM'ED; here pronounced in two syllables, to preserve the poetic measure.

tongue with a cord which thou lettest down"? Canst thou put a hook into his nose'? or bore his jaw through with a thorn'? Will he make many supplications unto thee'? Will he speak soft words unto thee'? Will he make a covenant with thee'? wilt thou take him for a servant forever'? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird'? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens'? Shall the companions make a banquet of him'? shall they part him among the merchants'? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons'? or his head with fish spears'? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him'? None is so fierce that dare stir him up: Who then is able to stand before me13, 10" (Job, xxxix.-xli.)

13,

17. When the conspirator Catiline had plotted to burn Rome, massacre the senate, and seize the government, the consul Cicero, having discovered the plot, thereupon called a meeting of the senate in the temple of Jupiter, to consult upon the public safety. As Catiline had the boldness to appear in his seat at the meeting, Cicero, instead of addressing the senate as he had intended, turns to Catiline, and in a speech of the most bitter invective assails the conspirator himself. A great part of the oration, like the introduction, is in the interrogative style.

THE OPENING OF CICERO'S FIRST SPEECH AGAINST CATILINE. 18. "How far, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience13? How long will your fury insult us'3? What bounds will you set to your unbridled rage'3? Do neither the nightguards of the palace', nor the city watch', nor the consternation of the people', nor the union of all good men', nor the meeting of the senate in this fortified place', nor the countenances and looks of all here present, at all move you'1?

19. “Do you not perceive that your designs are discovered, and that all who are present know of your conspiracy'1? Who of us, do you think, is ignorant of what you did the last night', and the night before', where you were', who were with you', and what you resolved' upon3? Alas, for our degeneracy 10! Alas, for the depravity of the times 10! The