force. As we see it, it is full of the quick alternation of question and
answer. The orator replies to himself as though he were meeting another
man’s objections. And this figure not only raises the tone of his words
but makes them more convincing.

[Footnote 1: See Note.]

[Footnote 2: _Phil._ i. 44.]

2
For an exhibition of feeling has then most effect on an audience when it
appears to flow naturally from the occasion, not to have been laboured
by the art of the speaker; and this device of questioning and replying
to himself reproduces the moment of passion. For as a sudden question
addressed to an individual will sometimes startle him into a reply which
is an unguarded expression of his genuine sentiments, so the figure of
question and interrogation blinds the judgment of an audience, and
deceives them into a belief that what is really the result of labour in
every detail has been struck out of the speaker by the inspiration of
the moment.

There is one passage in Herodotus which is generally credited with
extraordinary sublimity....


XIX

... The removal of connecting particles gives a quick rush and “torrent
rapture” to a passage, the writer appearing to be actually almost left
behind by his own words. There is an example in Xenophon: “Clashing