What shall we say, then, of those further figures, the questions and interrogations? Do they not, by the very forms of figure, give a far greater practical and impressive thrust to what is said? ‘Or, tell me, do you wish to be going about asking one another, “Is there any news?” For what could be more news than that a Macedonian is subduing Greece? “Is Philip dead?” “No, by Zeus, but he is sick.” And what is that to you? Even if anything happens to him, you will quickly make yourselves another Philip.’ And again: ‘Let us sail against Macedonia,’ he says. ‘But where shall we make harbour?’ said one. ‘The war itself will find the rotten places of Philip's affairs.’ Stated plainly, the matter would have been far inferior to the whole; as it stands, the inspired and rapid play of question and answer, and the answering of oneself as one would another, has not only made what is said more sublime through the figure but more credible. §1
For passionate matter then carries us most when it appears not so much that the speaker is contriving it as that the moment is begetting it; and the question to oneself, with its self-answer, imitates passion's seizure of the moment. As men questioned by others, when stung in the heat of the moment, give a reply directly from the truth itself in their answering, so the figure of question and answer leads the hearer to think that each premeditated point has been moved and uttered on the instant, and so deceives him. Further, ‘for one of the most sublime passages is the Herodotean,’ if so it… §2