IC-NRLF 
 
 ESfi 137 
 
 RULES FOR 
 
 PUNCTUATION 
 
i/ 1 
 
 A/Y 
 
 * 
 
 fff 
 
 Division 
 Range 
 
 Shelf. 
 
 Received 
 
 , 1876 
 
GENERAL RULES 
 
 FOB 
 
 PUNCTUATION 
 
 AND FOR THE 
 
 USE OF CAPITAL LETTEES. 
 
 Library* 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 CHARLES W. SEVER, 
 
 UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE. 
 
 1875. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 
 
 A. S. HILL. 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Cambridge : 
 Press of John Wilson 6 s Son. 
 
Library. 
 
 
 PUNCTUATION. 
 
 GOOD sense determines the pauses which marks of 
 punctuation indicate, and is, therefore, the guide to 
 correct punctuation. 
 
 Since punctuation is one of the means by which 
 a writer seeks to communicate thoughts or feelings 
 to his readers, it must vary with thought and expres- 
 sion : Sterne's punctuation must differ from that of 
 Dr. Johnson, and, though in a less degree, Burke's 
 from that of Macaulay. Hence, no one writer 
 even were books printed correctly, as is rarely the 
 case can be taken as a model. Hence, too, a com- 
 plicated system of rules loaded with exceptions, 
 though founded upon the best usage and framed 
 with the greatest care, is as likely to fetter thought 
 as to aid in its communication. 
 
 Assistance may, however, be obtained from a few 
 simple rules illustrated by examples : but it must be 
 borne in mind that these rules, elementary as they 
 are, may be violated, in order to avoid ambiguity or 
 obscurity ; for the purpose of every point is to indicate 
 the construction of the sentence in which it occurs, and 
 
4 GENERAL KTJLES 
 
 rules and examples under them are useful only in 
 so far as they explain and illustrate this principle. 
 
 Some principles are common to speaking or oral 
 reading and to punctuation : but the former is directed 
 to the ear^ the latter to the eye ; and the pauses 
 required by the ear do not always correspond with 
 the stops required by the eye. 
 
 I. 
 
 Beware of using the comma, the dash, or any one 
 point, exclusively or to excess. Every stop has duties 
 which no other stop can perform. 
 
 H. 
 
 Never put a mark of punctuation between two 
 words that belong, in sense and in construction, to- 
 gether, as adjective and noun, subject and verb : 
 never omit a point between two words that do not 
 belong together. 
 
 III. 
 
 Never put a comma [,] before or after and, or, or 
 7U>r,when employed to connect two words belonging to 
 the same part of speech (a), or two expressions used 
 as if they belonged to the same part of speech (5). 
 
 (a) In the nature of things, greatness and unify go together. 
 
 (a) Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my 
 hand and my heart to this vote. 
 
 (6) The new order of things was inducing laxity of manners 
 and a departure from the ancient strictness. 
 
FOR PUNCTUATION. 5 
 
 IV. 
 
 Always use the comma when there are more than 
 two such words or expressions, even though and, or, 
 or nor is retained (a) ; or when, there being only 
 two such words or expressions, and, or, or nor is 
 omitted (5). 
 
 (a) It is the centre of trade, the supreme court of. fashion, the 
 umpire of rival talents, and the standard of things rare and 
 precious. 
 
 (b) His trees extended their cool, umbrageous branches. 
 
 V. 
 
 Put a comma between two words or phrases 
 in apposition (a) unless used as a compound 
 name or a single phrase (6) or in contrast (c) 
 with each other. Instead of a comma, a dash [ ], 
 alone or combined with other stops, is sometimes 
 used (of). 
 
 (a) Above all, I should speak of Washington, the youthful 
 Virginian Colonel. 
 
 (6) On the seventeenth of November, 1558, after a brief but 
 most disastrous reign, Queen Mary died. 
 
 (c) While others yet doubted, they were resolved ; where 
 others hesitated, they pressed forward. 
 
 (d) Morgarten the Thermopylae of Switzerland lies by the 
 little lake of Egeri. 
 
 (d) The two principles of which we have hitherto spoken, 
 Sacrifice and Truth. 
 
6 GENERAL BULES 
 
 VL 
 
 Use the comma between two clauses, one of which 
 depends on the other (a) : omit the comma, however, 
 if the clauses are intimately connected in both sense 
 and construction (6). 
 
 (a) Though herself a model of personal beauty, she was not 
 the goddess of beauty. 
 
 (a) Had a conflict once begun, the rage of their persecutors 
 would have redoubled. 
 
 (a) If our will be ready, our powers are not deficient. 
 
 (6) He roused himself from his reverie as they approached 
 the side of his bed. 
 
 (6) The Board may hardly be reminded that the power of 
 expending any portion of the principal of our Fund expired at 
 the end of two years. 
 
 vn. 
 
 Separate from the context vocative words or ex- 
 pressions : by one comma, when they occur at the 
 beginning (a) or at the end (#) of a sentence ; by 
 two commas, when they occur in the body of a sen- 
 tence (<?). 
 
 (a) Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body. 
 (6) What would you, Desdemona ? 
 
 (c) Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, fellow-citizens*, were suc- 
 cessively Presidents of the United States. 
 (c) I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 (c) No, Sir, I thank you. 
 
FOR PUNCTUATION. 7 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Separate from the context, in like manner, many 
 adverbs (a), and, usually, adverbial (5), participial 
 (c), or absolute (d) phrases, when they modify the 
 sentence as a whole or connect it with another sentence. 
 
 (a) The pursuers, too, were close behind. 
 
 (a) Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our 
 origin. 
 
 (6) The farmers of the neighborhood had made haste, as soon 
 as the event of the fight was known, to send hogsheads of their 
 best cider as peace-oft'erings to the victors. 
 
 (c) Without attempting a formal definition of the word, /am 
 inclined to consider rhetoric, when reduced to a system in books, 
 as a body of rules derived from experience and observation, ex- 
 tending to all communication by language and designed to make 
 it efficient. 
 
 (d) To make a long story short, the company broke up, and 
 returned to the more important concerns of the election. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Separate from the context, in like manner, those 
 relative clauses which are explanatory or supplemen- 
 tary merely (#) ; but, generally speaking, not those 
 which are restrictive or determinative (). (See 
 Campbell's Rhetoric, p. 255.) 
 
 () At five in the morning of the seventh, Grey, who had 
 wandered from his friends, was seized by two of the Sussex 
 scouts. 
 
 (6) The uproar, the blood, the gashes, the ghastly figures 
 which sank down and never rose again, spread horror and dis- 
 may through the town. 
 
 (b) Those inhabitants who had favored the insurrection ex- 
 pected sack and massacre. 
 
8 GENERAL RULES 
 
 X. 
 
 Separate parenthetic or intermediate expressions 
 from the context, by commas (a), by dashes alone (6) 
 or combined with other stops (<?), or by parentheses 
 [( )] 00 The last are less used now than formerly. 
 The dash should not be used too frequently, but is 
 to be preferred to the comma when the use of the 
 latter would cause ambiguity or obscurity, as 
 when the sentence contains numerous commas (V). 
 
 Brackets [ ] are used when words (not the author's) 
 (/) or signs (#) are inserted in a sentence to 
 explain the meaning or to supply an omission. 
 
 (a) The difference, therefore, between a regiment of the foot 
 guards and a regiment of clowns just enrolled, though doubtless 
 considerable, was by no means what it now is. 
 
 (a) The English of the North, or Northumbrian, has be- 
 queathed to us few monuments. 
 
 (&), (a) It will 7 am sure it will more and more, as time 
 goes on, be found good for this. 
 
 (c) When he was in a rage, and he very often was in a 
 rage, he swore like a porter. 
 
 (d) Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for 
 nothing} give in reality to every political principle its distin- 
 guishing color and discriminating effect. 
 
 (e), (a) In the insurrection of provinces, either distant or 
 separated by natural boundaries, more especially if the inhabi- 
 tants, differing in religion and language, are rather subjects 
 of the same government than portions of the same people, 
 hostilities which are waged only to sever a legal tie may assume 
 the regularity, and in some measure the mildness, of foreign war. 
 
 (/) The chairman of our Committee of Foreign Relations 
 [A/r. Eppes~\, at the time he introduced these amendments to the 
 House, exhibited the true character of this policy. 
 
 (</) See brackets enclosing the parenthetic sign in X. , line 4. 
 
A v 
 
 FOR PUNCTUATION. f,)/J}*ff 9 
 
 ** f ! JS^ 
 
 The dash, alone or combined with other stops, 
 should be used where the construction or the sense 
 is suddenly changed or suspended (a) ; where a long 
 or significant pause is desired (5) ; where a thought 
 or a word is repeated for emphasis (<?) ; in rapid 
 narration (cT) ; where an ellipsis occurs of namely, 
 that is, and the like (e), or an omission of words, 
 letters, or figures (/) ; and between a title and the 
 subject-matter (#), or the subject-matter and the 
 authority for it Qi), when both are in the same 
 paragraph. 
 
 (a) The only consequence will be that the contest, instead of 
 being undertaken while we have strength to support it, will be 
 reserved not for our posterity, but to a time when we ourselves 
 shall have surrendered all our arms to the people with whom 
 we are to contend* nor will that period be distant. 
 
 (a) The man, it is his system : we do not try a solitary 
 word or act, but his habit. 
 
 (a) Rome, what was Rome? 
 
 (a) To let loose hussars and to bring up artillery, to govern 
 with lighted matches, and to cut, and push, and prime / call 
 this, not vigor, but the sloth of cruelty and ignorance. 
 
 (a) Great honor to the Fire-flies ! But ! 
 
 (i) He thought his whistle was answered it was but a blast 
 sweeping sharply through the dry branches. 
 
 (b) My faithful slave is murdered, and my goods taken for 
 a prey and Wamba where is Wamba ? 
 
 (6) "Long, long will I remember your features, and bless 
 G3d that I leave my noble deliverer united with " 
 She stopped short. 
 
 * Some would put a semicolon before the dash. 
 
10 GENERAL KULES 
 
 (c) I cannot forget that we are men by a more sacred bond 
 than we are citizens, that we are children of a common Father 
 more than we are Americans. 
 
 (c) What shall become of the poor, the increasing Stand- 
 ing Army of the poor? 
 
 (d) Hollo! ho! the whole world's asleep! bring out the 
 horses, grease the wheels, tie on the mail; and drive a 
 nail into that moulding, /'// not lose a moment. 
 
 (e) This deplorable scene admits of but one addition, that 
 we are governed by councils from which a reasonable man can 
 expect no remedy but poison, no relief but death. 
 
 (/) In the first place, I presume, you will have no difficulty 
 in breaking your word with Mrs. C y. 
 
 (/) 187475. 
 
 (#), (li) Did-na. The usual pronunciation is Di-dn-a. 
 SMART. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Beware of using either commas or periods in the 
 place of semicolons [ ; ] and colons [ : ] . Long 
 sentences broken only by commas are obscure ; 
 numerous short sentences separated by periods con- 
 vey thought vaguely and in fragments : by either 
 extreme, eye and mind are fatigued. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Use the semicolon or, very rarely, the colon be- 
 tween clauses, each of which is subdivided ly a num- 
 ber of commas (a). 
 
 (a) Death is there associated, not, as in Westminster Abbey 
 and Saint Paul's, with genius and virtue, with public veneration 
 
FOR PUNCTUATION. * 11 
 
 and with imperishable renown ; not, as in our humblest churches 
 and churchyards, with every thing that is most endearing in 
 social and domestic charities ; but with whatever is darkest in 
 human nature and in human destiny. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Use the semicolon (a) or, less frequently, the 
 colon (5) between two clauses, of which one is con- 
 nected with the other by a conjunction, such as for, 
 but, and, or yet. 
 
 (a) See last clause of Example (a) , XIII. 
 
 . (a) The very idea of purity and disinterestedness in politics 
 lalls into disrepute, and is considered as a vision of hot and 
 inexperienced men; and thus disorders become incurable, not 
 by the virulence of their own quality, but by the unapt and 
 violent nature of their remedies. 
 
 (b) This scheme was, perhaps, the best that could then be 
 contrived: but it was completely disconcerted by the course 
 which the civil war took. 
 
 (6), (a) Ayrshire was Cochrane's object: but the coast of Ayr- 
 shire was now guarded by English frigates; and the adventurers 
 were under the necessity of running up the estuary of the 
 Clyde to Greenock. 
 
 In the last example the distinction between the 
 colon and the semicolon is skilfully observed. The 
 connection of thought between the first clause and 
 the second is less close than that between the second 
 and the third ; a fact which is indicated by the use 
 of the colon in the first case, and of the semicolon 
 in the second case. 
 
12 * GENERAL RULES 
 
 XV. 
 
 Where for, but, and, or yet is omitted, the colon i3 
 usually to be preferred to the semicolon (a). 
 
 (a) The Presbyterians were interdicted from worshipping 
 God anywhere but in private dwellings : they were not to pre- 
 sume to build meeting-A0M.<?<?s : they were not even to use a 
 barn or an outhouse for religious exercises. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Use semicolons between clauses in a series, having 
 a common dependence upon a proposition at the begin- 
 ning or at the end of a sentence (a). 
 
 (a) You could give us no commission to wrong or oppress, 
 or even to suffer any kind of oppression or wrong, on 
 any grounds whatsoever : not on political, as in the affairs of 
 America; not on commercial, as in those of Ireland; not in 
 civil, as in the laws for debt ; not in religious, as in the statutes 
 against Protestant or Catholic dissenters. 
 
 (a) The ground strowed with the dead and the dying; the 
 impetuous charge ; the steady and successful repulse ; the loud 
 call to repeated assault ; the summoning of all that is manly to 
 repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly 
 bared in an inst?nt to whatever of terror there may bo in war 
 and death; all these you have witnessed, but you witness 
 them no more. 
 
 (a) They forget that, in England, not one shilling of paper- 
 money of any description is received but of choice; that the 
 whole has had its origin in cash actually deposited ; and that it 
 is convertible, at pleasure, in an instant, and without the 
 smallest loss, into cash again. 
 
FOR PUNCTUATION. 13 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Use colons between two members of a sentence, 
 each of which is composed of two or more clauses 
 separated by semicolons (a). 
 
 (a) Early reformations are amicable arrangements with a 
 friend in power ; late reformations are terms imposed upon a 
 conquered enemy : early reformations are made in cool blood ; 
 late reformations are made under a state of inflammation. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Use semicolons (a) or colons (5) choosing the 
 one or the other, according as the connection of 
 thought is more or less close to connect in form 
 successive short sentences which are, though but 
 slightly, connected in sense or in construction. 
 
 (a) Such was our situation : and such a satisfaction was 
 necessary to prevent recourse to arms ; it was necessary toward 
 laying them down ; it will be necessary to prevent the taking 
 them up again and again. 
 
 (b) We are seldom tiresome to ourselves ; and the act of 
 composition fills and delights the mind with change of language 
 and succession of images : every couplet when produced is new ; 
 and novelty is the great source of pleasure. 
 
 (6) The two qualities, however, are by no means undistin- 
 guislidble : a metaphor, for instance, may be apt and striking, 
 and consequently conducive to energy of expression, even though 
 the new image, introduced by it, have no intrinsic beauty. 
 
 (I)} Very few faults of architecture are mistakes of honest 
 choice: they are almost all hypocrisies. 
 
14 GENERAL RULES 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The colon is used before particulars formally 
 stated (a) ; the colon (5), the comma (c), or the 
 dash (cT), before quotations indicated by marks of 
 quotation [" "]. If the quotation depend directly 
 on a preceding word, no stop is required (Y). 
 
 (a) So, then, these are the two virtues of 'building: frst, the 
 signs of man's own good work ; secondly, the expression of 
 man's delight in work better than his own. 
 
 (a) The government possesses three different classes of 
 powers : 1st, Those necessary to enable it to accomplish all the 
 declared objects ; 2d, Those specially devolved on the nation 
 at large ; 3d. Those specially delegated. 
 
 (6) Toward the end of your letter, you are pleased to observe: 
 " The rejection of a treaty, duly negotiated, is a serious ques- 
 tion, to be avoided whenever it can be without too great a 
 sacrifice." 
 
 (c) When the repast was about to commence, the major- 
 domo, or steward, suddenly raising his wand, said aloud, " For- 
 bear! Place for the Lady Rowena." 
 
 (d) He went towards William Dane and said, in a voice 
 shaken by agitation, 
 
 " The last time I remember using my knife was when I took 
 it out to cut a strap for you." 
 
 (d) The trumpets then again flourished, and a herald, step- 
 ping forward, proclaimed aloud, " Oyez, oyez, oyez." 
 
 (e) The common people raised the cry of " Down with the 
 bishops." 
 
 (e) their Saxon title of honor, which signifies "Di- 
 viders of Bread." 
 
 (e) You pass one of the much vaunted " villas on the 
 Brenta." 
 
 (e) It declares that " war exists by the act of Mexico." 
 
FOR PUNCTUATION. 15 
 
 XX. 
 
 At the end of every complete sentence put a 
 period [.], if the sentence affirms or denies; an in- 
 terrogation point [?], if the sentence asks a direct 
 question; and an exclamation point [I], if the sen- 
 tence expresses emotion or wonder. Interrogation 
 or exclamation points are also used in the body of a 
 sentence, when two or more interrogations (a) or 
 exclamations (5) are closely connected together. 
 
 (a) For what is a body, but an aggregate of individuals'! 
 and what new right can be conveyed by a mere change of 
 name? 
 
 (6) How he could trot ! how he could runl 
 
 XXL 
 
 Periods are used after abbreviations (a), after 
 headings and sub-headings (5), and before decimals 
 (<?). In this last case, the period is, in English 
 (and some American) books, put above the line (d). 
 Commas are used before every three figures (counted 
 from the right), when there are more than four (e), 
 except in dates (/). 
 
 (a) If gold were depreciated one-half, 31. would be worth 
 no more than 11. 10s. is now. 
 
 (a) To retain such a lump in such an orbit requires a pull 
 of 1 Ib. 6 oz. 51 grs. 
 
 (6) 84*. Omission of Thou. 
 
 (c) This gives 11.93 Ibs. of ice-cold water made to boil with 
 1 Ib. of the fuel. 
 
16 GENERAL RULES FOR PUNCTUATION. 
 
 (d) On the system of equal temperament, if C is denoted by 
 1, E is denoted by 1-25992, and G by 1-49831. 
 
 (/) ( e ) The amount of stock issued by the several States, 
 for each period of five years since 1820, is as follows, viz. : 
 
 From 1820-1825 somewhat over $12,000,000. 
 1825-1830 13,000,000. 
 
 1830^1835 40,000,000. 
 
 1835-1840 109,000,000. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The apostrophe ['] is used to denote the elision of 
 a letter or letters (a), or of a figure or figures ( b ) ; 
 and to distinguish the possessive case (c). 
 
 (a) ' Tis James of Douglas, by Saint Serle ! 
 
 (6) Since that tune it has been re-observed on every subse- 
 quent revolution, in ', '5, and is always announced in the 
 almanacs as a regular member of our system. 
 
 (c) Spenser's adulation of her beauty (at some fifty or sixty 
 years of age) may be extenuated. 
 
 (c) The Seven Fears' war was carried on in America. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 The hyphen [-] is used to join the constituent parts 
 of compound (a) words ; and to divide words, as at 
 the end of a line (6). The division at the end of a 
 line should always be by syllables. 
 
 (a) The incense-breathing morn. 
 
 (a) He wears a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat. 
 
 (b) See under XIX., in (7>) (/ues-tion, in (c) For-bear, in (d) 
 step-piny, in (e) Di-viders, and various other words, supra. 
 
CAPITAL LETTERS 
 
 Every sentence opening a paragraph or following 
 a period should begin with a CAPITAL letter. 
 
 IL 
 
 Every direct quotation, formally introduced, should 
 begin with a capital letter (#). 
 
 (a) See (&), (c), (d), under XIX., p. 14._ 
 
 III. 
 
 Capital letters should begin every word which is, 
 or is used as, a name. We should write England, not 
 england ; the North American Indian, not the north 
 american indian; Shylock, not shylock; the White 
 Star Line, not the white star line ; the Bible, not the 
 bible. We should distinguish between the popes and 
 
18 CAPITAL LETTERS. 
 
 Pope Pius Ninth ; between the constitution of society 
 and the Constitution of the United States ; between 
 the reformation of a man's character and the Reforma- 
 tion of Luther ; between a revolution in politics and 
 the Revolution of 1688 ; between republican princi- 
 ples and the principles of the Republican party: 
 the foundation of the distinction 'in each case being 
 that a word, when used as a name, should begin with 
 a capital letter. Good authors do not uniformly 
 follow this rule ; but the cause of most departures 
 from it is, probably, to be sought in their own or 
 their printers' inadvertence, rather than in their in- 
 tention to ignore a useful principle, or to create need- 
 less exceptions to it. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Capital letters exclusively are used in titles of 
 books: they are used more freely in prefaces or 
 introductions than in the body of the work ; and 
 they may be used in order to emphasize words of 
 primary importance. For purposes of emphasis, 
 they should, however, be used with great caution: 
 to insist too frequently upon emphasis is to defeat 
 its object. 
 
CAPITAL LETTERS. 19 
 
 V. 
 
 Phrases or clauses, when separately numbered, 
 should each begin with a capital letter (a). 
 
 (a) These are usually called 
 
 1. Simple apprehension. 
 
 2. Judgment. 
 
 3. Reasoning or discourse. 
 
 VI. 
 
 I and O not oh should always be written as 
 capital letters. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 O.V 
 
 MAR 5 1943 
 
 18Fe'59WJ 
 
 IN STACKS 
 
 SENT ON ILL 
 
 APR 1 5 1997 
 
 U. C. BERKELEY 
 
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