21.39 \S5s ps . GENERAL RULE ve ot Lee pean a-ak ty ve Soh hag, 25 Al _NINTH THOUSAND MURS | < e ee _ THE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS a . Se By A ‘3; ‘HILLY, "BOYLSTON PROFESSOR OF* RHETORIC AN » bey RY IN ‘HARVARD COLLEGE VG apy w y Ie, My, BS d Yy, "Vg Bobised Evition My Or” : lag “Ways cd _ REPRINTED FROM HILL’S ‘‘PRINCIPLES OF RHETORIC” CAMBRIDGE CHARLES W. SEVER UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE 1878 PU TH Return this boak on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library JUN 49 1954 HE L161—Il41 1878 Res GENERAL RULES Bye NO TUATION AND FOR THE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS losing. utsnals athe BOYLSTON PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND a 7p IN HARVARD COLLEGE f /P ‘ay MU Of y Uy, “9 ‘HE Np 1925 | Rebised Lvition VO/py Of /{ dj 3 REPRINTED FROM HILL’S *‘PRINCIPLES OF RHETORIC”? CAMBRIDGE CHARLES W. SEVER UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE 1878 Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library L161—0O-1096 V 25/22 Witen MM ttA, = reek H if bed fl kik, UA) > a PUNCTUATION. I. GENERAL RULES FOR PUNCTUATION. JUDGMENT determines the relations, whether of thought or of language, which marks of punctuation indicate ; taste determines the choice, when good usage admits of a choice, between two modes of indicating those relations: judgment and taste are, therefore, the guides to correct punctuation. Since punctuation is one of the means by which a writer communicates with his readers, it naturally va- Ties with thought and expression: the punctuation of ‘Tristram Shandy ” will therefore differ from that of “The Rambler ;”’ and in a less degree the punctuation of Burke’s Orations, from that of Macaulay’s Essays. Hence no one writer —even were books printed cor- rectly, as is rarely the case —can be taken as a model. Hence, too, a 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 sim- ple rules founded upon the principle that the purpose of every point is to indicate to the eye the construction of 84366 | fe: PUNCTUATION. the sentence in which it occurs, —a principle which is best illustrated by examples of sentences correctly con- structed as well as correctly punctuated. One who knows few rules, but who has mastered the fundamental principles of construction, will punctuate far better than one who slavishly follows a set of formulas. The latter will not know how to act in a case not provided for in any formula: the former will readily understand that. the letter of a rule may be violated, in order to give effect to its spirit; that ambiguity and obscurity should, above all things, be avoided ; and that marks of punctu- ation which are required on principle may be omitted when they are disagreeable to the eye or confusing to the mind. Some rules are common to spoken and to written dis- course: but the former is directed to the ear, the latter to the eye; and the pauses required by the ear or the voice do not always correspond with the stops required by the eye. A speaker is often obliged to pause between words which should not be separated by marks of punc- tuation ; or he is carried by the current of emotion over places at which marks of punctuation would be indis- pensable: he has inflection, emphasis, gesture, in addi- tion to pauses, to aid him in doing what the writer has to do with stops alone. F A slight knowledge of punctuation suffices to show the absurdity of the old rules, —that a reader should pause at a comma long enough to count one, at a semi- colon long enough to count two, and at a colon long enough to count three. The truth is that, in some of the most common cases in which a comma is necessary, a speaker would make no pause. For example: No, sir. Thank you, sir. PUNCTUATION. 4) On the other hand, sentences often occur in which a comma can at no point be properly inserted, but which no one can read without making one or more pauses before the end. For example :— The art of letters is the method by which a writer brings out in words the thoughts which impress him. I lately heard a man of thought and energy contrasting the modern want of ardor and movement with what he remembered in his own youth. The great use of a college education is to teach a boy how to rely on himself. In punctuation the following points are used : — Comma Semicolon . Colon Period . : Interrogation Point Exclamation Point. ae ete ce, UATE Geer eet wie ne Tain SNe a Ker? ot. Marcerohs barenthesiar,\urisc es ik ee | Apostrophe 1 Hg CS CS RE a es eh gee A iN aa Marker OF GiiotationNa: wetness os f°). OF a) lm a 3 om "We es we & “J —7> ~~ No one of these points should be used exclusively or to excess; for each has some duty which no other point can perform. There are, however, a number of cases in which the choice between two points —as comma and semicolon, colon and semicolon—is deter- mined by taste rather than by principle. A student of punctuation should ask himself why in a given case to put in a stop rather than why to leave one out; for the insertion of unnecessary stops is, on ’ the whole, more likely to mislead a reader than is the omission of necessary ones. PUNCTUATION. Perhaps the most intelligible, as well as the most compendious, method of giving a general idea of the principal uses of ‘the several marks of punctuation is to enlarge a short sentence by making successive addi- tions to it. EXAMPLES. 1. John went to town. 2. John Williams went to the city. 3. Popular John Williams boldly went to the city of New York. 4. Popular and handsome John Williams boldly went to the city of New York. 5. Popular, handsome John Williams boldly went to the city of New York. 6. Popular, handsome, and wealthy John Williams boldly went to the city of New York. 7. Popular, handsome, and wealthy John Williams, son of Samuel Williams, boldly went to the city of New York. 8. I assure you, gentlemen of the jury, that popular, hand- some, and wealthy John Wil- liams, son of Samuel Williams, boldly went to the city of New York. . 9 (1). I assure you, gentle- men of the jury, that popular, handsome, and wealthy John Williams, son of Samuel Wil- REMARKS. 1 to 4. Complete sentences requiring a period at the end (XV.). No other point possi- ble, because words closely con- nected stand next to one an- other, and the construction is plain. 5. Comma: after ‘‘ popular ”’ in place of ‘‘ and”? (I. e). 6. Comma before ‘‘ and,’’ be- cause each of the three adjec- tives stands in a similar relation to the noun (I. 9). 7. ‘Son of Samuel Wil- liams’’ between commas, be- cause in apposition with ‘‘ John Williams ”’ (II. a), and paren- thetical (VI. a). 8. ‘* Gentlemen of the jury ”’ between commas, because indi- cating to whom the whole sen- tence, one part as much as another, is addressed (III. c), and because parenthetical (VI. a). 9 (1). ‘* With the boldness of a lion’’ between commas, — though its equivalent ‘* boldly ”” (in 8) is not, — because the con- PUNCTUATION. 4 liams, went, with the boldness of a lion, to the city of New York. 9 (2). I assure you, gentle- men of the jury, that popular, handsome, and\ wealthy John Williams, son of Samuel Wil- liams, went with the boldness of a lion to the city of New York. 10 (1). I assure you, gentle- men of the jury, that popular, handsome, and wealthy John Williams, son of Samuel Wil- liams, who is now over seventy years of age, boldly went to the city of New York, that city which is so badly governed. 10 (2). I assure you, genitle- men of the jury, that popular, handsome, and wealthy John Williams, son of Samuel Wil- liams, who is now over seventy years of age, boldly went to the city of New York,—that city which is so badly governed. 11. I assure you, gentlemen of the jury, that popular, hand- some, and wealthy John Wil- liams, son of Samuel Williams, who is now over seventy years of age, boldly went to the city of New York, —that city which, as everybody knows, is badly governed. 12. To show you how badly governed that city is, I need only refer to the ‘ Quarterly —a struction of an adverbial phrase is more uncertain than that of a single word (IV. a). 9 (2). Commas omitted after ‘‘went’’ and ‘‘lion,’’ because disagreeable. to the eye (see p. 4), —a practical reason which in this case overrules the theo- retical reason for their insertion. 10 (1). Comma between ‘* Wil- liams ’”’ and ‘‘ who,’’ because the ‘who’? clause makes an addi- tional statement (V. a), in the nature of a parenthesis (VI. a). No comma between ‘ city ’’ and ‘¢ which,’ because the ‘‘ which ”’ clause is an integral part of the sentence, and is necessary to the sense (V. 0). 10 (2). Dash added to comma between ‘‘ York”’ and ‘that ”’ to relieve the eye from too many commas near together (VI. e), reason strengthened in paragraph 11 by the additional commas. 11. ** As everybody knows ”’ between commas, because it is a parenthetical expression which can be lifted out of the sentence without injuring the construc- tion (VI. a.) 12. Marks of quotation to indicate that the ‘‘ Quarterly Review’? and ‘The Weekly 8 PUNCTUATION. Review,”’ vol. cxl. p. 120, and ‘¢The Weekly Clarion,’’ No. xl. p. 19. 13 (1). The first tells us about a man who is called John Doe; the second, about Rich- ard Roe. Doe was charged with larceny; Roe, with breach of trust. 13.(2). The first tells us about a man who is called John Doe, the second about Richard Roe. Doe was charged with larceny, Roe with breach of trust. 14, Mr. Williams was bold. 15 (1). If Mr. Williams was bold, he was also prudent. 15 (2). Mr. Williams was as prudent as he was bold. 16 (1). Mr. Williams was bold, and he was also prudent. 16 (2). Mr. Williams had all the boldness of the lion; and he also had the wisdom of the serpent. 17 (1). Mr. Williams had all the boldness of the lion; and he also had the wisdom of the ser- pent: but he lacked the inno- cence of the dove. Clarion’’ are called by their names (XVII. a). Periods after cx]. and xl., because in better taste and more agreeable to the eye than commas (XX. e). 13 (1). Commas after ‘ sec- ond’’ and ‘‘ Roe,’’ to take the place of words necessary to com- plete the sense (VII. a). In | this case semicolons tod between the clauses. _ 13 (2). Commas omitted after ‘¢ second ’’ and *‘ Roe,’’ because the sense is plain without them (VII. 6). In this case commas required between the clauses. 14. Period after Mr., an abbre- viation (XVI. a). So, too, in paragraph 12, after ‘‘vol.,’’ ‘© No.,”? ¢ p.” 15 (1). Comma required be- tween the principal and the dependent clause (VIII. a). 15 (2). No comma required, because the principal clause merges in the dependent one (VIII. 0). 16 (1). Two independent clauses separated by a comma (IX. a). 16° (2). Two independent clauses separated by a semicolon (IX. b). 17 (1). Colon after ‘ ser- pent ’’ to indicate that the clause after it is balanced against the two clauses before it (XII. a). PUNCTUATION. 9 17 (2). Mr. Williams had all the boldness of the lion, and he also had the wisdom of the serpent; but he lacked the inno- cence of the dove. 18 (1). Mr. Williams had all the boldness of the lion; and he also had the wisdom of the ser- pent: but he lacked the inno- cence of the dove; he lacked simplicity; he lacked purity; he lacked truthfulness. 18 (2). Mr. Williams had all the boldness of the lion, and he also had the wisdom of the serpent; but he lacked the inno- cence of the dove, —he lacked simplicity, he lacked purity, and he lacked truthfulness. 19. Mr. Williams had all the boldness of the lion; and he also had the wisdom of the serpent: but he lacked the innocence of the dove; he lacked simplicity; he lacked purity; he lacked truthfulness, — what good thing did he not lack ? 20 (1). Do you suppose that Mr. Williams went to New York for an honorable purpose ? that he had no improper motive ? no criminal design ? 20 (2). Do you suppose that Mr. Williams went to New York for an honorable purpose, that he had no improper motive, no criminal design? 17 (2). Same effect produced by substituting comma for semi- colon, and semicolon for colon (XII. 3). 18 (1). Series of short sen- tences after ‘* dove ’’ separated by semicolons (XI. a). 18 (2). Comma and dash sub- stituted for semicolon, because succeeding clauses no longer in a series with the preceding one, but in apposition with it (iid); 19. Dash rendered necessary by the sudden change of con- struction (XIV. a). Interroga- tion point to indicate a direct question (XY.). 20 (1). Interrogation points to indicate successive questions; small letters instead of capitals to indicate closeness of con- nection, like that of indepen- dent clauses in an affirmative sentence (XV. a). 20 (2). Same result reached by substitution of commas for interrogation points. 10 PUNCTUATION. 21. Honor! his honor! 22. I tell you that his purpose was dishonorable; that his mo- tive was most improper; that his design was both legally and morally criminal. 23. He was, as I have said, bold: much may be accom- plished by boldness. 24. His purposes were: first, to meet his confederates; sec- ondly, to escape detection. 25. Such were Mr. Williams’s purposes, and such were his con- federates’ purposes. 26. Such were Mr. Williams’s purposes, and such were his con- federates’ purposes, — purposes which I will not characterize as they deserve. 27 (1). ‘* How do you know this ?’’ I am asked. 27 (2). I am asked, ‘‘ How do you know this ? ”’ 27 (8). I am asked: ‘‘ How do you know this? On what evidence is the charge found- ed??? 27 (4). I am asked how I know this, on what evidence I make the charge. 28. I answer that I have known it since March, ’67. 29. I answer that I have known it since March, 1867; since his father-in-law’s de- cease. 21. Exclamation points as used in sentences closely con- nected (XV. 0). 22. Semicolons to separate de- pendent expressions in a series (X. a). 23. Colon between short sen- tences not closely connected (XI. 0). 24. Colon before particulars formally stated (XIII. a). 25. ‘Apostrophes to indicate the possessive of a singular, and that of a plural, noun (XIX. c). 26. Dash to give rhetorical emphasis (XIV. c). 27 (1 to 4). Quotation points used with a direct ‘question (XVII. a). Interrogation point enough if question comes first. If it comes last, comma used when but one question asked (XU. c); colon, when two or more (XIII. 6). Indirect ques- tion punctuated like affirmative sentence. 28. Apostrophe to indicate omission of figures (XIX. 0). 29. Hyphen to join parts of a derivative word (XVIII. B). PUNCTUATION. 11 30. The authorities on which I shall rely are: 11 Mass. Rep. 156; 2 Kent’s Com. 115-126. 31 (1). I beg’ you to give close attention to these author- ities, which, though not recent, are important, pertinent to the case in hand, and, therefore, not to be slurred, neglected, or sneered at. 81 (2). I beg you to give close attention to these author- ities, which though not recent 30. Colon to supply ellipsis of. ‘‘the following ’’ (VII. e). Style of quoting law books. 31 (1). Every comma inserted in obedience to some rule. 31 (2). Commas omitted for reasons of taste and for the com- fort of the eye. are important, pertinent to the case in hand, and _ therefore not to be slurred, neglected, or sneered at. I. WORDS IN A SERIES. (1) No comma [,] is inserted before or after conjunc- tions —such as and, or, nor, but, yet —when employed to connect two words belonging to the same part of speech and in the same construction (a), or to con- nect two expressions which are in the same construc- tion, and are used as if they belonged to the same part of speech (6). (2) A comma should, however, be inserted where the word before the conjunction is qualified by a word that is not intended to qualify the word after the conjunc- tion (¢); or where the word after the conjunction is followed by an expression which qualifies that word alone (d). (3) A comma is required between such words or 12 PUNCTUATION. expressions, when they are not connected by a conjunc- tion (e); or when there are more than two such words or expressions (f), even though a conjunction is put before the last one in the series (yg). If, however, the word or expression following the conjunction is more closely connected with the word or expression imme- diately preceding it than with the other words in the series, the comma is omitted (h). (4) If the conjunction is repeated before each word or expression in the series, the comma is usually omitted where the words between which the conjunction stands are closely united in.meaning (7), and is sometimes inserted where they are not so united (7). (5) If the series is composed of several words un- connected by conjunctions, a comma is put after the last word, in order to indicate that all the words in the series bear the same relation to the succeeding part of the sentence (4); but sometimes, as where the sentence is so short as to present no difficulty, this rule is disregarded (7). If the succeeding part of the sentence is connected with the last word in the series, but not with the preceding words, the comma is’ omitted (m). (a) Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. (a). A just but melancholy reflection embittered, however, the noblest of human enjoyments. (b) The new order of things was inducing laxity of manners and a departure from the ancient strictness. (c) He suddenly plunged, and sank. (c) His mind was profoundly thoughtful, and vigorous. (d) All day he kept on walking, or thinking about his mis- fortunes. (d) ’T was certain he could write, and cipher too. PUNCTUATION. 13 (e) His trees extended their cool, umbrageous branches. (e) Kinglake has given Aleck a great, handsome chestnut mare. (f) These are no medieval personages; they belong to an older, pagan, mythological world. (g) This is the best sig to strengthen, refine, and enrich the intellectual powers. (g) He had a hard, gray, and sullen face, piercing black eyes under bushy gray eyebrows, thin lips, and square jaw. (g) It is the centre of trade, the supreme court. of fashion, the umpire of rival] talents, and the standard of things rare and precious. (2) I have had to bear heavy rains, to wrestle with great storms, to fight my way and hold my own as well as I could. (7) There speech and thought and nature failed a little. (1) We bumped and scraped and rolled very unpleasantly. (j) For his sake, empires had risen, and flourished, and de- cayed. (7) (j) And feeling all along the garden wall, Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found, Crept to the gate, and open’d it, and closed. (2) (d) I sat and looked and listened, and thought how many thousand years ago the same thing was going on in honor of Bubastis. (k) The bollexes: the clergy, the lawyers, the wealthy merchants, were against me. (7) All great works of genius come from deep, lonely thought, (2) Punish, guide, instruct the boy. (m) Lydgate’s conceit was of the arrogant sort, never simper- ing, never impertinent, but massive in its claims and benevolently contemptuous. In the example under (7), some writers would omit the commas. Their omission would be more usual in a colloquial than in an oratorical style, such as that of the passage in Macaulay from which the sentence is taken. 1 There is no comma here, because the writer is speaking, not of a mare that is handsome and chestnut, but of a chestnut mare that is handsome. 14 PUNCTUATION. Il. WORDS IN APPOSITION. A comma is put between two words or phrases which are in apposition with each other (a), unless they are used as a compound name or a single phrase (6). In- stead of a comma, the dash [—] alone (¢), or combined with the comma (d), is sometimes used. (a) Above all, I should speak of Washington, the youthful Virginian colonel. (a) Next to the capital stood Bristol, then the first English sea- port, and Norwich, then the first English manufacturing town. (6) On the seventeenth of November, 1558, after a brief but most disastrous reign, Queen Mary died. (b) Ward Room, Franklin Schoolhouse, Washington Street, Boston. (c) This point represents a second thought — an emendation. (c) Do I want an arm, when I have three right arms — this (putting forward his left one), and Ball, and Troubridge ? (d) The two principles of which we have hitherto spoken, — Sacrifice and Truth. (d) He considered fine writing to be an addition from without to the matter treated of, — a sort of ornament superinduced. In a sentence constructed like the first one under (¢), the dash is preferable to the comma; for the dash indi- cates unmistakably that the two expressions between which it stands are in apposition, whereas the comma might leave room for a momentary doubt whether “ an emendation”’ was the second term in a series, of which ‘‘a second thought” was the first term. A similar re- mark can be made about the second sentence under (¢). Where, as in the sentences under (d), the words in apposition are separated from each other by several other words, the dash indicates the construction more clearly than the comma would do. PUNCTUATION. 15 LEE. VOCATIVE WORDS. Vocative words or expressions are separated from the context by one comma, when they occur at the beginning (a) or at the end (0) of a sentence; by two commas, when they occur in the body of a sentence (¢). (a) Mark Antony, here, take you Ceesar’s body. (6) What would you, Desdemona ? , _(c) Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, fellow-citizens, were succes- sively Presidents of the United States. (c) Lremain, Sir, your obedient servant. (c) No, sir,1 J thank you. TV. ADVERBS AND ADVERBIAL EXPRESSIONS. Adverbial (a), participial (6), adjectival (¢), or ab- solute (d@) expressions are separated from the context by a comma or commas. So are many adverbs and conjunctions when they modify a clause or a sen- tence, or connect it with another sentence (e). (a) By the law of nations, citizens of other countries are allowed to sue and to be sued. (a) The book, greatly to my disappointment, was not to be found. (6) Without attempting a formal definition of the word, J 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. (>) Returning to the question, let me add a single word. (c) Violent as was the storm, it soon blew over. 1 See ‘* Capital Letters,’’ III. p. 33. 16 PUNCTUATION. (d) To make a long story short, the company broke up, and re- turned to the more important concerns of the election. (d) To state my views fully, J will begin at the beginning. (e) The pursuers, too, were close behind. (e) Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. (e) Here, indeed, is the answer to many criticisms. (e) Therefore, however great the changes to be accomplished, and however dense the array against us, we will neither despair? on the one hand, nor on the other ! threaten violence. ‘* Many words ranked as adverbs are sometimes em- ployed conjunctively, and require a different treatment in their punctuation. When used as conjunctions, however, now, then, too, indeed, are divided by commas from the context; but when as adverbs, qualifying the words with which they are associated, the separation should not be made. ‘This distinction will be seen from the following examples: — ¥* ‘¢1. HowrEver.— We must, however, pay some deference to the opinions of.the wise, however much they are contrary to our own. ‘¢9. Now. —I have now shown the consistency of my principles; and, now, what is the fair and obvious conclusion? ‘¢3. THEen.— On these facts, then, I then rested my argument, and afterwards made a few general observations on the subject. ‘4. Too.—I found, too, a theatre at Alexandria, and another at Cairo; but he who would enjoy the representations must not be too particular. ‘¢5, InpEED. —The young man was indeed culpable in that act, though, indeed, he conducted himself very well in other respects. “When placed at the end of a sentence or a clause, the conjunction tov must not be separated from the con- text by a comma; as, ‘I would that they had changed voices too.’ 2 1 Commas omitted here for reasons of taste. See p. 4. 2 Wilson: Punctuation, p. 73. PUNCTUATION. 17 Va RELATIVE CLAUSES. Relative clauses which are merely explanatory of the antecedent, or which present an additional thought, are separated from the context by a comma or commas (@) ; but relative clauses which are restrictive, that is, which limit or determine the meaning of the antecedent, are not so separated (6).1 (a) His stories, which made everybody laugh, were often made to order. (a) At five in the morning of the seventh, Grey, who had wan- dered from his friends, was seized by two of the Sussex scouts. (a) His voice, which was so pleasing in private, was too weak for a public occasion. (a) In times like these, when the passions are stimulated, truth is forgotten. (a) The leaders of the party, by whom this plan had been devised, had been struggling for seven years to organize such an assembly. (a) We not only find Erin for Jreland, where brevity is in favor of the substitution, but also Caledonia for Scotland. (6) He did that which he feared to do. (b) He who is his own lawyer is said to have a fool for a client. (0) The uproar, the blood, the gashes, the ghastly figures which sank down and never rose again, spread horror and dismay through the town. (b) Those inhabitants who had favored the insurrection expected sack and massacre. ~ 3 (6) The extent to which the Federalists yielded their assent would at this day be incredible. (b) I told him where that opposition must end. (>), (a) Those Presbyterian members of the House of Com- mons who had been expelled by the army, returned to their seats, and were hailed with acclamations by great multitudes, which filled Westminster Hall and Palace Yard. 1 See Hill’s Principles of Rhetoric, p. 105. 18 PUNCTUATION. Vel, PARENTHETIC EXPRESSIONS. Parenthetie or intermediate expressions are separated from the context by commas (a), by dashes either alone (6) or combined with other stops (¢), or by marks of parenthesis [( )] (d@). The last are less com- mon now than they were formerly. The dash should not be used too frequently, but is to be preferred to the comma when the latter would cause ambiguity or obscurity, as where the sentence already contains a number of commas (¢). Brackets [ ] are used when words not the author’s (f), or when signs (gy), are inserted to explain the meaning or to supply an omission. Sometimes also brackets are needed for clearness (h). (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 bequeathed to us few monuments. (0), (a) It will—T 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. (c) They who thought her to be a great woman, — and many people did think her to be great, — were wont to declare that she never forgot those who did come, or those who did not. (d) He was received with great respect by the minister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany (who afterwards mounted the Imperial throne), and by the ambassador of the Empress Queen. (d) Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing) 1 In this sentence, the word “‘or’’ is not a disjunctive, but has the force of ‘* otherwise called.’’ PUNCTUATION. 19 give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. (d) If it is true, as this new teacher says, that the artist is the product of his time, it is evident (they will infer) that no modern artist can become like the product of another time. (e), (a) In the insurrection of provinces, either distant or sepa- rated by natural boundaries,— more especially if the inhabitants, 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. (f) The chairman of our Committee of Foreign Relations [ Mr. Eppes], introduced at this time these amendments to the House. (9) [See brackets enclosing the parenthetic signs in VI., line 4.] (4) [As here and in (g), to show that these are not examples, but references. | The principle which requires parenthetical expres- sions to be set off by marks of punctuation, — a principle underlying II., III., IV., and V. (a), as well as VI., — founded though it is in the obvious utility of separat- ing from the rest of the sentence words which interrupt the continuity of thought, and can be removed without impairing the grammatical structure, may occasionally be violated to advantage ; as, for example, by the omis- sion of commas before and after the words “though it is,” in the fourth line of this paragraph. So, too, in the first line of XIV., the parenthetical expression, “ either alone or combined with other stops,” is set off by commas; but, in the second and third lines of VI., the same expression is written without the first comma, because by the omission the expression is made to qualify “dashes”? only. In the clause, “after a brief but most disastrous reign” (II. 6), the words “ but most disastrous” are parenthetical ; but marks of paren- thesis can well be spared, the clause ts so brief. 20 PUNCTUATION. VIL. ELLIPTICAL SENTENCES. A comma is often required to indicate an ellipsis, (a); but the comma, if not needed to make the sense clear, may be dispensed with (6). Where the ellipsis is of the expressions that is, namely, and the like, a point is always required: in some cases a comma is to be preferred (¢), in others a comma and dash (d), in others a colon (e). (a) Admission, twenty-five cents. (a) He was born at the old homestead, May 7, 1833. He always lived in Newport, Rhode Island, United States of America. (a) Its political maxims are invaluable; its exhortations to love of country and to brotherly affection among citizens, touching. (a) With a united government, well administered, he saw that we had nothing to fear; and without it, nothing to hope. (b) On the best lines of communication the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous, and the way often such as it was hardly possi- ble to distinguish, in the dark, from the unenclosed heath and fen which lay on both sides. (b) Hancock served the cause with his liberal opulence, Adams with his incorruptible poverty. “(e) This scene admits of but one addition, that we are mis- governed. (d) 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. (e) One thing is sure: the bill will not pass. In both the examples under (6), the insertion of com- mas between the italicized words would, on account of the proximity of other commas, create obscurity and offend the eye; in the third and fourth examples under (a), this objection does not hold. PUNCTUATION, 21 VIll. DEPENDENT CLAUSES. A comma is used between two clauses, one of which depends on the other (a). If, however, the clauses are intimately connected in both sense and construc- tion, the comma is often omitted (0). (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. (a) As soon as his declaration was known, the whole nation was wild with delight. | (a) While France was wasted by war, the English pleaded, traded, and studied in security. (0) The Board may hardly be reminded that the power of expend- ing any portion of the principal of our fund expired at the end of two years. (b) And loved her as he loved the light of heaven. (0) We wished to associate with the ocean until it lost the pond- like look which it Wears to a countryman. (6) You may go if you will. (b) I doubt whether he saw the true limits of taste. (>) Then Shakspere is a genius because he can be translated into German, and not a genius because he cannot be translated into French. These examples show that, if the dependent clause comes first, a comma is usually required; but that sometimes one is not required if the dependent clause comes immediately after the clause on which it de- pends. In the former case, the word which makes the connection between the two clauses is at a distance from the words it connects; in the latter case, it stands between or at least near the words it connects. 22 PUNCTUATION. IX. INDEPENDENT CLAUSES. A point is required between two independent clauses - connected by a conjunction, —such as for, and, but, or yet, —in order to render it certain that the conjunction does not serve to connect the words between which it stands. If the sentence is a short one, and the clauses are closely connected, a comma is sufficient (a); in other cases, a semicolon [;] (4) or a colon [:] (¢) is required.t (a) I had now a mind to try how many cobwebs a single spider could furnish; wherefore I destroyed this, and the insect set about another. (a) There was a lock on the door, but the key was gone. (a) Learn to live well, or fairly make your will. (a) The lock went hard, yet the key did open it. (a) He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the Publie Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. (b) This was the greatest victory in that war, so fertile in great exploits ; and it at once gave renown to the Admiral. (b) So end the ancient voices of religion and learning; but they are silenced, only to revive more gloriously elsewhere. (a), (b) The very idea of purity and disinterestedness in politics falls 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. (c), (0) The Mohawks were at first afraid to come: but in April they sent the Flemish Bastard with overtures of peace ; and in July a large deputation of their chiefs appeared at Quebec. (a), (c) His friends have given us materials for criticism, and for these we ought to be grateful; his enemies have given us nega- tive criticism, and for this, up to a certain point, we may be grateful: but the criticism we really want neither of them has yet given us.? 1For punctuation of independent clauses not connected by a conjunction (successive short sentences), see XI., p. 24. 2 See also XII. (a), p. 25. PUNCTUATION. 23 X. DEPENDENT EXPRESSIONS IN A SERIES. Semicolons are used between expressions in a series which have a common dependence upon words at the beginning (a) or at the end (6) of a sentence. (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 /reland; not in civil, as in the laws for debt ; not in religious, as in the statutes against Protestant or Catholic dissenters. (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 con- vertible, at pleasure, in an instant, and without the smallest loss, into cash again. (a) In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood: binding up the Constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our funda- mental laws into the bosom of our family affections ; keeping insepa- rable, and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our State, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars. (b) 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 instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death;—all these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more. (b) How we have fared since then—what woful variety of scheines have been adopted ; what enforcing, and what repealing ; what doing and undoing ; what shiftings, and changings, and jum- blings of all kinds of men at home, which left no possibility of order, consistency, or vigor — it is a tedious task to recount. 24 PUNCTUATION. XI. SUCCESSIVE SHORT SENTENCES. Either semicolons or colons may be used to connect in form successive short sentences which are, though but slightly, connected in sense. Semicolons are usually preferred where the connection of thought is close (q@) ; colons, where it is not very close (6). (a) The united fleet rode unmolested by the British ; Sir Charles Hardy either did not or would not see them. (a) Such was our situation: and such a satisfaction was neces- sary 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. (a) Mark the destiny of crime. It is ever obliged to resort to such subterfuges ; it trembles in the broad light; i betrays itself in seeking concealment. (a) The women are generally pretty ; few of them are brunettes ; many of them are discreet, and a good number are lazy. (a) He takes things as they are; he submits to them all, as far as they go; he recognizes the lines of demarcation which run between subject and subject. (b) Very few faults of architecture are mistakes of honest choice : they are almost all hypocrisies. (b) The same may be said of the classical writers: Plato, Aris- totle, Lucretius, and Seneca, as far as I recollect, are silent on the subject. (6) Compute your gains: see what is got by those extravagant and presumptuous speculations which have taught your leaders to despise all their predecessors. (6), (a) The professors of science who threw out the general principle have gained a rich harvest from the seed they sowed: they gave the principle; they got back from the practical telegrapher accurate standards of measurement.! 1 See also XII. (a), p. 25. bo Cm PUNCTUATION. XII. COMPOUND SENTENCES. Colons are used between two members of a sentence, one or both of which are composed of two or more clauses separated by semicolons (a); semicolons, or very rarely colons, between clauses, one or both of which are subdivided by a number of commas (0). The relations which the several parts of the sentence bear to one another are thus clearly indicated. (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 reforma- tions are made under a state of inflammation. (a) We are seldom tiresome to ourselves; and the act of com- position 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. (a) There seems to have been an Indian path; for this was the ordinary route of the Mohawk and Oneida war-parties : but the path was narrow, broken, full of gullies and pitfalls, crossed by streams, and in one place interrupted by a lake which they passed on rafts.1 (6) He was courteous, not cringing, to superiors; affable, not familiar, to equals ; and kind, but not condescending or supercilious, to inferiors. -(b) Death is there associated, not, as in Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul’s, with genius and virtue, with public ven- eration and with imperishable renown, not, as in our humblest churches and churchyards, with every thing that is most en- dearing in social and domestic charities; but with whatever is darkest in human nature and in human destiny. (5) Therefore they look out for the day, when they shall have put down religion, not by shutting its schools, but by emptying them; not by disputing its tenets, but by the superior weight and persuasiveness of their own. 1 See also IX. (c), p. 22, and XI. (0), (a), p. 24. 26 PUNCTUATION. XI. FORMAL STATEMENTS 5; QUOTATIONS. The colon is used before particulars formally stated (a). The colon (6), the comma (ec), or the dash com- bined with the colon (d) or with the comma (e), is used before quotations indicated by marks of quotation [‘« ’].1. The dash is generally used before a quoted passage which forms a new paragraph; it is joined with the comma when the quotation is short, with the colon when it is long. If the quotation depends di- rectly on a preceding word, no stop is required (f). (a) So, then, these are the two virtues of building: jirst, the signs of man’s own good work; secondly, the expression of man’s delight in work better than his own. (a) Again: this argument is unsound because it is unfounded in fact. The facts are such as sustain the opposite conclusion, as I will prove in a very few words. (b) Toward the end of your letter, you are pleased to observe : ‘* The rejection of a treaty, duly negotiated, is a serious question, to be avoided whenever it can be without too great a sacrifice. Though the national faith is not actually committed, still it is more or less engaged.”’ (c) When the repast was about to commence, the major-domo, or steward, suddenly raising his wand, said aloud, ‘‘ Forbear !— Place for the Lady Rowena.’’ (d) Alice folded her hands, and began: — ‘* You are old, Father William,” the young man said, “‘ And your hair is uncommonly white. . .” (e) Shakspere wrote the line, — ‘* The evil that men do lives after them.” (f) The common people raised the ery of ‘‘ Down with the bishops.’’ (f) It declares that ‘‘ war exists by the act of Mexico.” — 1 See XVIE. p. 29. PUNCTUATION, 27 XIV. THE DASH. The dash, either alone or combined with other stops, is used where the construction or the sense is suddenly changed or suspended (a); where a sentence termi- nates abruptly (6); for rhetorical emphasis (¢); in rapid discourse (d) ; where words, letters, or figures are omitted (e); and between a title and the subject- matter (f), or the subject-matter and the authority for it (g), when both are in the same paragraph. (a) The man—zit is his system: we do not try a solitary word or act, but his habit. (a) Consider the Epistle to the Hebrews— where is there any composition more carefully, more artificially, written? (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,—T call this, not vigor, but the sloth of cruelty and ignorance. (6) ‘‘ Long, long will I remember your features, and bless God that I leave my noble deliverer united with ’’ — She stopped short. (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 Standing Army of the poor? (d) Hollo! ho! the whole world’s asleep ! — bring out the horses, — grease the wheels, — tie on the mail. (e) In the first place, I presume you will vk: no difficulty in breaking your word with Mrs. C——y. (e) 1874-76. (f), (g) Di-d-na. — The usual pronunciation is Di-dn-a. — SMART. (g) The Eastern and the Western imagination coincide. — Stanley. 28 PUNCTUATION. ix Vi PERIOD, NOTE OF INTERROGATION, AND NOTE OF EXCLAMATION. At the end of every complete sentence, a period [.] is put if the sentence affirms or denies; a note of inter- rogation [?], if the sentence asks a direct question; a note of exclamation [!], if the sentence is exclamatory. Interrogation or exclamation points are also used in the body of a sentence when two or more interrogations (a) or exclamations (6) are closely connected. (a) For what is a body but an aggregate of individuals? and what new right can be conveyed by a mere change of name? (b) How he could trot! how he could run! XVI. ABBREVIATIONS AND HEADINGS. Periods are used after abbreviations (a), and after headings and sub-headings (6). Commas are used be- fore every three figures, counted from the right, when there are more than three (c), except in dates (d). (a) If gold were depreciated one-half, 3/. would be worth no more than 1/. 10s. is now. (a) To retain such a lump in such an orbit requires a pull of 1 lb. 6 oz. 51 grs. (b) Worps DEFINED BY USAGE. (c), (d) 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 “f », 18,000,000. », 1830-1835 ‘ », 40,000,000. », 18385-1840 3 », 109,000,000. PUNCTUATION. 29 XVII. MARKS OF QUOTATION. Expressions in the language of another require marks of quotation [*”] (a). Single quotation points [‘ ’] mark a quotation within a quotation (6). If, however, a quotation is made from still a third source, the double marks are again put in use (¢). Titles of books or of periodicals (d), and names of vessels (e) usually require marks of quotation, unless they are italicized. Sometimes, however, where they occur frequently, or in foot-notes, titles are written in Roman and capitalized (f). (a) [See XIII. p. 26.] (b) Coleridge sneered at ‘‘the cant phrase ‘made a great sensation.’ ”’ (c) ‘‘ This friend of humanity says, ‘When I consider their lives, I seem to see the ‘‘ golden age’’ beginning again.’ ”’ (d) ‘* Waverley ’’ Was reviewed in ‘‘ The Edinburgh.’ (e) ‘‘ The Constitution ’’ is a famous ship of war. (f) [See foot-notes in this book. ] XVIII. THE HYPHEN. The hyphen [-] is used to join the constituent parts of many compound (a) and derivative (6) words; and to divide words, as at the end of a line (c). (a) The incense-breathing morn. (a) He wears a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat. (0) The Vice-President of the United States. (c) [See ‘‘ inter-rogation ’’ under XV., second line; ‘‘ be-fore ”’ under XVI., second line. ] 30 PUNCTUATION. XIX. THE APOSTROPHE. The apostrophe [’] is used to denote the elision of a letter or letters (a), or of a figure or figures (0); to distinguish the possessive case (¢); and to form certain plurals (d). The apostrophe should not be used with the pronouns its, owrs, and the like (e). (a) ’Tis James of Douglas, by Saint Serle! (a) The O’ Donoghue was a broth of a boy. (a) What o’clock is it ? (a) Hop-o’-my-thumb is an active little hero. (b) Since that time it has been re-observed on every subseguent revolution, — in ’22, °25. (b) The patriots of ’76. (c) Spenser’s adulation of her beauty may be extenuated. (c) The Seven Years’ war was carried on in America. (c) The Jones’s dogs are on good terms with Mrs. Barnard’s cat. (c) Ladies’ and gentlemen’s boots made to order. (c) The book can be found at Scott & Co., the publishers’. (c) The fox’s tail was accordingly cut off. (c) For conscience’ sake. (d) Mark all the a’s in the exercise. (d) Surely long s’s (f) have, like the Turks, had their day. (e) Its [not it’s] length was twenty feet. (e) Tom Burke of Ours. It is sometimes a question whether to use the pos- Sessive with an apostrophe, or to use the noun as an adjective. One may write, — John Brown, Agent for Smith’s Organs and Robinson’s Pianos: or, John Brown, Agent for The Smith Organ and The Robinson Piano. The latter form is preferable. PUNCTUATION. id DOG PUNCTUATION IN THE SERVICE OF THE EYE. (1) A comma sometimes serves to distinguish the component parts of a sentence from one another, thus enabling the reader more readily to catch the mean- ing of the whole. Where, for example, a number of words which together form the object or one of the objects of a verb, precede instead of following the verb, they should be set off by a comma when perspicuity requires (a); but not otherwise (0). (2) A subject-nominative may need to be distin- guished from its verb, either because of some pecu- larity in the juxtaposition of words at the point where the comma is inserted (¢), or because of the length and complexity of the subject-nominative (d). (8) When numerals are written in Roman letters instead of Arabic figures, as in references to authori- ties for a statement, periods are used instead of com- mas, both as being in better taste and as being more agreeable to the eye. For the same reason, small letters are preferred to capitals when the references are numerous (¢). (a) Even the kind of public interests which Englishmen care for, he held in very little esteem. (a) To the tender and melancholy recollections of his early days with this loved companion of his childhood, we may attribute some of the most heartfelt passages in his ‘* Deserted Village.”’ (6) Even his country he did not care for. (6) To devout women she assigns spiritual functions, dignities, and magistracies. (c) How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, Excels a dunce that has been kept at home! 32 PUNCTUATION. (c) One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right. (d) The same modification of our Germanism by another force which seems Celtic, is visible in our religion. (d) To allow the slave-ships of a confederation formed for the extension of slavery to come and go free and unexamined between America and the African coast, would be to renounce even the pre- tence of attempting to protect Africa against the man-stealer. (d) Those Presbyterian members of the House of Commons who had many years before been expelled by the army, returned to their seats. (e) Macaulay: History of England, vol. 7. chap. vi. pp. 60, 65. [See also notes throughout this book. ] (e) Deut. xvi. 19; John wi. 58. CAPITAL LETTERS. 83 LT. CAPITAL LETTERS. se EVERY sentence opening a paragraph or following a full stop, and every line in poetry, should begin with a capital letter. If. Every direct quotation, formally introduced, should begin with a capital letter (a). (a) [See XIII. (2),-(c), p. 26.] TIT. A capital letter should begin every word which 7s, or ws used as, a proper name. We should write England, not england; the American Indian, not the american indian; Shylock, not shylock; the White Star Line, not the white star line; the Bible, not the bible; Muil- tonic, not miltonic. We should distinguish between the popes and 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 Reformation of Luther; between a revolution in poli- tics and the Revolution of 1688; between republican 34. CAPITAL LETTERS. principles and the principles of the Republican party: the foundation of the distinction in each case being, that a word, when used as a proper name, should begin with a capital letter. Good authors do not uniformly follow this rule; but most departures from it probably origi- nate in their own or their printers’ inadvertence, rather than in their intention to ignore a useful principle, or needlessly to create exceptions to it. The only excep- tion to this rule—an exception, however, not firmly established — is in sz, gentlemen, in the body of a com- position. The reason for not using a capital in such cases is that it would give undue importance to the word. | IV. Capital letters exclusively are used in titles of books or chapters; they are used more freely in prefaces or introductions than in the body of the work, and more freely in books designed for instruction than in others ; and they, or italics, may be used in order to emphasize words of primary importance. For purposes of em- phasis, they should, however, be used with caution: to insist too frequently upon emphasis is to defeat its object. V. Phrases or clauses, when separately numbered, should each begin with a capital letter (a). (a) Government possesses three different classes of powers: Ist, Those necessary to enable it to accomplish all the declared objects; 2d, Those specially devolved on the nation at large; 3d, Those specially delegated. CAPITAL LETTERS. 85 VI. “QO” should always be written as a capital letter (a) ; “oh” should not be so written, except at the beginning of a sentence (0). (a) Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! (>) But oh, the madness of my high attempt Speaks louder yet! | VIL. In a letter, the first word after the address should begin with a capital; this word is often printed, in order to save space, on the same line with the address, but should be written on the line below. In the address, Sir should always begin with a capital; and the weight of good usage favors Friend, Father, Brother, Sister, both as being- titles of respect and as emphatic words, rather than friend, father, brother, sister, unless when the word occurs in the body of the letter. The affectionate or respectful phrase at the out of a letter should begin with a capital. New Yorx, 25 Jan. 1875. My dear Sir: Your esteemed favor of «ne 22d inst. gave me the most sensible pleasure. Your obedient servant, Ae Be Mr. C. D., Boston. Sept. 29, 1875. My dear Friend, Your favor of August 1st has just come to hand. Whatever sweet things may be said of me, there are not less said of you. Yours faithfully, DENG 86 CAPITAL LETTERS. To the Editor of The Nation: — Sir: The ‘‘ great mercy’? in Ohio is doubtless a cause for great rejoicing on the part of all honest men. West S——, Mass., Oct. 16, 1875. JER ISB Sy New York, Oct. 28, 1875. The Honorable and Others: Gentlemen, — Your favor of the 26th instant is received, asking me to speak next Monday at Faneuil Hall upon the political issues of to-day. Thanking you for its courteous terms, I accept your invitation, and am Very truly yours, S. Lins WEATHERSFIELD, 20 May, ’75. I am here, my dear brother, having arrived last evening. Affectionately yours, C. W. It will be observed that in these examples the marks of punctuation between the address and the body of the letter differ. The comma is less formal than the colon, and the colon alone less formal than the dash with either comma or colon. ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS. 3T BEL ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS. [From Irvina’s Oliver Goldsmith. New York: G. P. Putnam. 1851.] Oliver Goldsmith was born on the 10th of November, 1728, at the hamlet of Pallas, or Pallasmore, county of Longford, in Ireland. He sprang from a respectable, but by no means a thrifty, stock. Some families seem to inherit kindliness and incompetency, and to hand down virtue and poverty from generation to generation. Such was the case with the Goldsmiths. ‘‘ They were always,” according to their own accounts, “a strange family; they rarely acted like other people ; their hearts were in the right place, but their heads seemed to be doing any thing but what they ought.’ —“ They were remarkable,” says another statement, ‘‘ for their worth, but of no cleverness in the ways of the world.” Oliver Goldsmith will be found faithfully to inherit the virtues and weaknesses of his race. [From R. W. Emerson’s Society and Solitude. Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co. 1870.] Next to the knowledge of the fact and its law is method, which constitutes the genius and efficiency of all remarkable men. A crowd of men go up to Faneuil Hall; they are all pretty well acquainted with the ob- ject of the meeting; they have all read the facts in the 38 PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALS. same newspapers. The orator possesses no information which his hearers have not; yet he teaches them tosee | the thing with his eyes. By the new placing, the cir- cumstances acquire new solidity and worth. Every fact gains consequence by his naming it, and trifles become important. His expressions fix themselves in men’s memories, and fly from mouth to mouth. His mind has some new principle of order. Where he looks, all things fly into their places. What will he say next? Let this man speak, and this man only. [From Grorce Exror’s Middlemarch. William Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh and London. 1871.] This was the physiognomy of the drawing-room into which Lydgate was shown; and there were three ladies to receive him, who were also old-fashioned, and of a faded but genuine respectability: Mrs. Farebrother, the Vicar’s white-haired mother, befrilled and ker- chiefed with dainty cleanliness, upright, quick-eyed, and still under seventy ; Miss Noble, her sister, a tiny old lady of meeker aspect, with frills and kerchief decidedly more worn and mended; and Miss Winifred Farebrother, the Vicar’s elder sister, well-looking like himself, but nipped and subdued as single women are apt to be who spend their lives in uninterrupted subjec- tion to their elders. Lydgate had not expected to see so quaint a group: knowing simply that Mr. Fare- brother was a bachelor, he had thought of being ushered into a snuggery where the chief furniture would proba- bly be books and collections of natural objects. The Vicar himself seemed to wear rather a changed aspect, as most men do when acquaintances made elsewhere see them for the first time in their own homes. : ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS. 39 [From DanreL WEBSTER’s Works. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1866.] Finally, Gentlemen, there was.in the breast of Wash- ington one sentiment so deeply felt, so constantly up- permost, that no proper occasion escaped without its utterance. From the letter which he signed in behalf of the Convention when the Constitution was sent out to the people, to the moment when he put his hand to that last paper in which he addressed his countrymen, the Union, —the Union! was the great object of his thoughts. In that first letter he tells them that, to him and his brethren of the Convention, union appears to be the greatest interest of every true American; and in that last paper he conjures them to regard that unity of government which constitutes them one people as the very palladium of their prosperity and safety, and the security of liberty itself. He regarded the union! of these States less as one of our blessings, than as the great treasure-house which contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was the great magazine of all our means of prosperity ; here, as he thought, and as every true American still thinks, are deposited all our animat- ing prospects, all our solid hopes for future greatness. He has taught us to maintain this union, not by seeking to enlarge the powers of the government, on the one hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other; but by an administration of them at once firm and moderate, pursuing objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice and equity... . Gentlemen, I propose — ‘‘ THE Memory orf GEORGE WASHINGTON.” : : 1 See III. p. 33. 40 PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALS. [From J. 8S. Mixv’s Dissertations and Discussions. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1873.] Is there, then, no remedy? Are the decay of indi- vidual energy, the weakening of the influence of superior minds over the multitude, the growth of charlatanerie,} and the diminished efficacy of public opinion as a re- straining power,—are these the price we necessarily pay for the benefits of civilization? and can they only be avoided by checking the diffusion of knowledge, discouraging the spirit of combination, prohibiting im- provements in the arts of life, and repressing the fur- ther increase of wealth and of production? Assuredly not. Those advantages which civilization cannot give — which in its uncorrected influence it has even a tend- ency to destroy— may yet co-exist with civilization ; and it is only when joined to civilization that they can produce their fairest fruits. All that we are in danger of losing we may preserve, all that we have lost we may regain, and bring to a perfection hitherto unknown ; but not by slumbering, and leaving things to themselves, no more than by ridiculously trying our strength against their irresistible tendencies: only by establishing coun- ter-tendencies, which may combine with those tenden- cies, and modify them. [From Macautay’s History of England. London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans. 1849.] When this had been done it would be impossible for our rulers to misunderstand the law: but, unless some- thing more were done, it was by no means improbable that they might violate it. Unhappily the Church had long taught the nation that hereditary monarchy, alone 1 Charlatanry is the preferable form. | \ ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS. 41 among our institutions, was divine and inviolable; that the right of the House of Commons to a share in the legislative power was a right merely human, but that the right of the King to the obedience of his people was from above; that the Great Charter was a statute which might be repealed by those who had made it, but that the rule which called the princes of the blood-royal to the throne in order of succession was of celestial origin, and that any Act of Parliament inconsistent with that rule was a nullity. [From THomas Cartyun’s Inaugural Address, in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. New York: Scribner, Welford, & Co. 1872. ] Finally, Gentlemen, I have one advice to give you, which is practically of very great importance, though a very humble one. In the midst of your zeal and ardor, —for such, I foresee, will rise high enough, in spite of all the counsels to moderate it that I can give you, —remember the care of health. I have no doubt you have among you young souls ardently bent to con- sider life cheap, for the purpose of getting forward in what they are aiming at of high; but you are to con- sider throughout, much more than is done at present, and what it would have been a very great thing for me if I had been able to consider, that health is a thing to be attended to continually ; that you are to regard that as the very highest of all temporal things for you [Ap- plause|}. There is no kind of achievement you could make in the world that is equal to perfect health. What to it are nuggets and millions? The French financier said, ‘‘ Why, is there no sleep to be sold!” Sleep was not in the market at any quotation. 42 PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALS. [From HAwtTHorNeE’s Blithedale Romance. Boston: J. R. Osgood 7 & Co. 1875.] “You mistake the matter completely,” rejoined Westervelt. ‘¢ What, then, is your own view of it?” I asker ‘‘ Her mind was active, and various in its powers,” said he. ‘ Her heart had a manifold adaptation ; her constitution an infinite buoyancy, which (had she pos- sessed only a little patience to await the reflux of her troubles) would have borne her upward, triumphantly, for twenty years to come. Her beauty would not have waned — or scarcely so, and surely not beyond the reach of art to restore it— in all that time. She had life’s summer all before her, and a hundred varieties of brill- iant success. What an actress Zenobia might have been! It was one of her least valuable capabilities. How forcibly she might have wrought upon the world, either directly in her own person, or by her influence ~ upon some man, or a series of men, of controlling genius! Every prize that could be worth a woman’s having — and many prizes which other women are too timid to desire —lay within Zenobia’s reach.” “In all this,” I observed, ‘there would be nothing to satisfy her heart.” ‘“¢ Her heart!” answered Westervelt, contemptuously. [Those who wish still further to pursue the study of Punctuation are referred to WiLson’s Treatise on the subject. ] INDEX. ABBREVIATIONS, how punctuated, 28. Absolute expressions, how punctuated, 15. Adjectival expressions, how punctu- ated, 15. Adverbial expressions, how punctu- ated, 15. Adverbs, how punctuated when used as conjunctions, 16. Also, examples of, how punctuated, 29, 24, 25, 32. And, when to be preceded by punctu- ation marks and when not, 11-13, 22. Apostrophe, use of, 30. Apposition, words or phrases in, how punctuated, 14. Authorities. See References. BRACKETS, use of, 18. But, when to be preceded by punctu- ation marks, and when not, 11-13, 22. CapPiTAL LETTERS, at beginning of sentence or line of poetry, 33; at beginning of quotations, 83; in proper names, 33, 34; in titles, pref- aces, &c., 34; at beginning of sep- arately numbered clauses, 34; O and oh, 35; in letters, 35, 36. Citations of authorities, 31. Colon, use of, to indicate an ellipsis, 20; between two independent clau- ses, 22; to connect successive short sentences, 24; in compound sen- tences, 25; before formal state- ments and quotations, 26. Comma, use of, with words in a series, 11-13; between words or phrases in apposition, 14; with vocative words or expressions, 15; with adverbs, adverbial, participial, adjectival, and absolute expressions, 15, 16; with relative clauses, 17; with parenthetic expressions, 18, 19; with elliptical sentences, 20; between two clauses, one of which depends on the other, 21; between two independent clauses, 22; before quotations, 26; with figures, 28; to distinguish component parts of sen- tences, 31. Compound words, 29. Conjunctions, how punctuated in a series, 11-13. Correspondence. See Letters. Dash, use of, 27; alone or combined with comma _ between words or phrases in apposition, 14; with parenthetic expressions, 18; com- bined with comma to indicate an ellipsis, 20; combined with colon or comma before quotations, 26. Dates, how punctuated, 28, 30, 35, 36. Dependent clauses, how punctuated, 21; effect of position of depend- ent with reference to independent clause, 21; dependent clauses in a series, how punctuated, 23. Derivative words, 29. Extsron, how indicated, 30. Ellipsis, how indicated, 20. Emphasis, how attained by punctua- tion, 27, 34. Exclamation point, use of, 28. Expressions in a series. See Series. Eye, punctuation in service of, 31; reason for omission of stops, 4; for insertion of stops, 31. Ficures, how punctuated, 28. For, what punctuation should precede, 22. Formal statements, how punctuated, 26. 44 (GJENTLEMEN, when to begin with small letter, and when with capital, 34; examples, 6, 389, 41. HEADINGS, how punctuated, 28. However, how punctuated, 16. Hyphen, use of, 29. INDEED, how punctuated, 16. Independent clauses, two connected by a conjunction, how punctuated, Interrogation point, use of, 28. Italics, as substitute for quotation marks, 29; for emphasis, 34. /ts, and similar words, not to be writ- ten with apostrophe, 30. LETTERS, punctuation and capitalizing -of, 35, 386. See Capitals. NAMELY, ellipsis of, 20. Nov, when to be preceded by punctu- ation marks, and when not, 11-13, 22. Now, how punctuated, 16. Numerals, Roman, how punctuated, 31. O, On, how punctuated, 35. Omission, of words, letters, or figures, how indicated, 27. Or, when to be preceded by punctu- tion marks, and when not, 11-13, 18, 22. Ours. See Its. PARENTHESIS, use of, 18. Parenthetic expressions, how punc- tuated, 18, 19;. principle which re- quires them to be set off from rest of sentence may sometimes be vio- lated to advantage, 19. Participial expressions, how punctu- ated, 15. Pauses, not correspondent to punctua- tion, 4 Period, use of, at end of every com- plete sentence, 28; after abbrevia- tions, headings, and sub-headings, 28; with Roman numerals, 31. Plurals, formation of certain, by aid of apostrophe, 30. Possessive case, how indicated, 30; substitute for, 30. Proper names, to begin with capitals, 33. Punctuation, the guides to correct, 3; varies with thought and expres- INDEX. sion, 8; purpose of, 3, 4; spoken and written discourse not governed by same rules, 4; absurdity of some of the old rules, 4, 5; points used, and general remarks concerning their use, 5; examples giving general idea of principal uses of the several points, with remarks on each exam- ple, 6-11; in the service of the eye, 31, 32. QUOTATION MARKS, use of, 29. Quotations, how punctuated, 26, 29; should begin with a capital, 33. REFERENCES to authorities, how punc- tuated, 27, 29, 31. Relative clauses, how punctuated, 17. Rhetorical emphasis. See Emphasis. SEMICOLON, use of, between two inde- pendent clauses, 22; between de- pendent expressions in a series, 23; to connect successive short sen- ee 24; in compound sentences, 5. Sentences, a succession of short, how punctuated, 24; compound, how punctuated, 25; how to begin, 33; how to end, 28. Series, words or expressions in a, how punctuated, 11-138; dependent ex- pressions in a, how punctuated, 23. Sir, when to begin with small letter, and when with capital, 34, 35; ex- amples, 4, 15, 35. TASTE, a guide to punctuation, 3, 5. Texts of Scripture, how punctuated, That is, ellipsis of, 20. Then, how punctuated, 16. Tickets, fifty cents, how punctuated, 20 Titles of books, how punctuated, 29; to be written in capitals, 34; how separated from subject-matter, 27. Too, how punctuated, 16; at end of sentence, 16. VocaTIvVE Worps or expressions, how punctuated, 15. Worps in apposition. See Apposition. Words ina series. See Series. YxET, when to be preceded by punc- tuation marks, and when not, 11- 18, 22. * CHARDENAL’S FRENCH EXERCISES. FOR ADVANCED PUPILS. lvol. 12mo. $1.25. Used in Harvard University, and many of the Boston Private Schools. CHARLES W. SEVER, University Bookstore, Cambridge, Mass. Opinions of some Professors of French. From Proressor J. Levy. I HAVE examined very carefully Chardenal’s book you had the kindness to send me. The only thing I can say about it is, that I shall most certainly use it in some of my classes, and introduce it next year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... . I may want about a hundred copies within a fortnight. From M. Louts Buanc. Jar lu avec un vif intérét ’ouvrage que vous avez derniérement publié. Tl m’a paru excellent de toute facon : comme méthode, comme clarté, comme explication des régles, comme choix des exemples. C’est un vrai service rendu 4 l’enseignement de la langue francaise dans ce pays, et je souhaite de tout cceur a ce trés utile livre le succés qu'il meérite. From M. Scunewer, Professor of French, Edinburgh High School. JE viens d’introduire votre ouvrage 4 la ‘‘ High School’? d’Edimbourg. Je m’en sers aussi dans d’autres écoles ; il me semble que c’est la la meilleure critique que je puisse en faire. From M. Dupont, Professor of French, Westminster School. PERMETTEZ-MOI de vous féliciter de Vhabileté avec laquelle vous avez su réunir dang un si court espace la plupart des idiotismes de notre langue. Je ne doute pas que votre travail ne soit d’un puissant secours pour les éléves qui désirent se familiariser avec ces formes courantes du langage qu’ils ne sauraient rencontrer dans les auteurs classiques qu’ils ont entre les mains. From M. Karcuer, Professor of French, Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Le recueil d’exercices publié par M. Chardenal répond parfaitement, selon moi, au but que l’auteur se propose. Les éléves qui possedent déja les éléments de la langue francaise y trouveront un moyen facile de se familiariser avec les tournures idiomatiques qui se présentent 4 chaque pas et qui rendent la conversation si pénible aux étrangers. En un mot, ces exercices leur'apprendront a parler francais, au lieu de se servir de phrases littéralement traduites de l’anglais. L’introduction grammaticale, qui contient les principales regles de la syntaxe, est faite avec soin et intelligence et sera trés-utile aux étudiants qui recherchent une solution sommaire des difficultés qu’ils rencontrent tous les jours. From M. Cu. Cassa, LL. D., Professor of French, University College, London. JE puis vous dire, en toute sincérité, que vous avez fait un travail bon et utile. Le recueil d’expressions idiomatiques est excellent et ferait a lui seul le succés de votre jivre. ——_—___¢—__—_—— ALSO, BY THE SAME AUTHOR. FRENCH PRIMER, FOR JUNIOR CLASSES. 50c. FIRST FRENCH COURSE; or, Rules and Exercises for Beginners. ‘5c. SECOND FRENCH COURSE, AND READER. 90c. For sale, at Publishers’ Price, by SCHOENHOF & MOELLER, 40 Winter Street, Boston. Sent post-paid. Price, 25 cents. QUESTIONS ON THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF ROME. SUITABLE FOR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES, AND ADAPTED TO STUDENTS PREPARING FOR HARVARD COLLEGE. BY J. F. TUFTS, A.B. Cambrivge, sass. : CHARLES W. SEVER, UNIVERSITY BooKsTORE. Just Published. QUESTIONS Price, 25 cents, ON THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF GREEC E. SUITABLE FOR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES, AND ADAPTED TO STUDENTS PREPARING FOR HARVARD COLLEGE. By J. F. TUFTS, A.B. IN PRESS, BY THE SAME AUTHOR, a QUESTIONS ON THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF ROME, _ WITH MAP; QUESTIONS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, \, ON THE SAME PLAN AND ADAPTED FOR THE SAME PURPOSES, Cambridge, Mass. : Gye AOR TK St WS Ee VR, UNIVERSITY BooxKsTORE. < _ ~ Sent post-paid, Prive, 25 cents. QUESTIONS. ON MODERN AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. SUITABLE FOR SOHOOLS AND ACA DEMIES, AND GedDAPTED TO STUDENTS PREPARING FOR 4 HARVARD COLLEGE. . By wy 9 Ge BY Ay 4o ZY oO. SS 7 | ate J. TURES aoe *¢ 4 AUTHOR OF “QUESTIONS ON GREECE AND ROMB.” Yop Cambritge, Sass. : CHARLES W. SEVER, UnIversiry BooxsTorE.