Chapter 18: Questions and Interrogations

And  what should we say about these-questions and interrogations? Does not Demosthenes, by using various species of these figures,make what is said more effective and agitated:

Tell me, do you wish to go around asking each other, “Is there any news?” What could be newsier than this, that a man from Macedonia is attacking Greece? “Is Philip dead?” “No, by heaven, but he is sick.” Whal difference does it make to you? Should he suffer something, you will soon create another Philip.

And further on, he says:

Let’s sail to Macedonia. “Where shall we land?” some­ one asks. The war itself will find out the weakness in Philip’s affairs.

Mentioned just by itself, the matter is altogether lacking, but the enthusias­ tic and rapid quality of the question and answer and his confrontation with himself as though he were another person, by means of the figure, not only make what was said more sublime, but also more believable. 2. What is emotional, you see, stirs us more when the speaker does not seem to have rehearsed it, but when it seems to be born at just the right moment, when asking and answering oneself imitate the exact right moment for emotion. You see, almost as those interrogated by others are stimulated by the immediacy of the occasion and confront what is asked with the truth of a legal proceeding, so the figure of question and answer, stirring the audience, deceives it into the opinion that the points speculated on were spoken in the excitement of being on the spot. And, besides, surely this passage from Herodotus is one of the sublime:

If thus…

( a lacuna of 2 leaves [4 pages or about 4%] occurs here)

Commentary

questions and interrogations: the rhe­ torical handbooks make a sharp distinc­ tion between these terms: “questions” are so phrased that they must be ans­ wered in many words; “interrogations” can be answered either affirmatively or negatively-by a “yes” or “no.” Langi­ nus does not observe the distinction in this chapter, and in fact quotes a pas­ sage from that favorite of the hand­ books, Demosthenes, in which the word “interrogate” is used “incorrectly.”

We should observe that Longinus effects his transition from the last chap­ ter to this one by imitating the device he is about to analyze. His opening ques­ tion is slyly rhetorical, as he pretends to bewilderment on the problem of the fine distinctions noted above.

The device of self-question and answer-what Isidore calls “soliloquy” (Halm, p. 522)-is peculiarly suited to the dialectical nature of the Greek lan­ guage, but it is a feature of both Greek and Roman culture. We can trace its use from the imaginary dialogues which Socrates holds with himself (Apology and Gorgias) to the Confessions of Augustine. Though perhaps not so common in English, where we read rather than hear, the device is used, as the following examples show:

But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed.
What then? is the reward of virtue bread?
Pope, Essay on Man IV.149-50

How falls it, then, that with so smooth an ease
My thoughts I speak, and what I speak doth flow
In verse, and that my verse best wits doth please?
Guess we the cause “What, is it thus?” Fie, no.
“Or so?” Much less. “How then?” Sure thus it is:
My lips are sweet, inspired with Stella’s kiss.
Sidney, Astrophel and Stella 74

MobyDick,ortheWhiteWhale A hunt. The last great hunt. For what?
For Moby Dick, the huge white sperm whale: who is old, hoary, monstrous, and swims alone; who is unspeakably terrible in his wrath, having so often been attacked; and snow-white.
Of course he is a symbol. Of what?
I doubt if even Melville knew. That’s the best of it.
D. H. Lawrence

I am going to ask whether the present movement for ousting letters from their old predominance in education, and for transferring the predominance in education lo the natural sciences, whether this brisk and flourishing movement ought lo prevail, and whether il is likely that in the end il will prevail. An objection may be raised which I will anticipate. My own studies have been al­ most wholly in letters, and my visits to the fields of the natural sciences have been very slight and inadequate, although those sciences have always strongly moved my curiosity. A man of letters, it will perhaps be said, is not competent lo discuss the comparative merits of letters and natural sciences as a means of education. To this objection I reply ….Matthew Arnold, Literature andScience

by using various species of these fig­ ures: Longinus was aware of the dis­ tinction made between types of ques­ tions, and this word—which means “to characterize by species”—is used to mark his recognition.

another Philip: the quotation is a slightly altered version of Demosthenes’ first Philippic (10).

affairs: from the same speech (the first Philippic 1.44), also slightly altered.

in a legal proceeding … on the spot: in 22.3 Longinus also conjoins the two phrases, and there too he is praising Demosthenes. The sense of urgent inten­ sity in Demosthenes is the source of Longinus’ admiration for him; see the comparison with Cicero in ch. 12.

if thus …: the lacuna prevents us from knowing just what passage of Herodo­ tus Longinus intended; many sugges­ tions have been made (see Russell’s note).