Part 2
1. When the last word in the series precedes only a single word, the comma should be omitted; as, “A refined, thoughtful, warm-hearted, pure-souled Englishman.”
2. When two words or expressions are connected by _or_, the latter explaining the former, the explanatory word or expression should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas; as, “The love of variety, or curiosity of seeing new things, which is the same, or at least a sister passion to it, seems woven into the frame of every son and daughter of Adam.”—_Sterne._
RULE XV. _Phrases and Clauses._—Phrases and clauses, either with or without conjunctions, having a mutual relation to some other word in the sentence, should be separated from each other and from what follows by commas.
EXAMPLES.
“Purity of style, and an easy flow of numbers, are common to all Addison’s Latin poems.”—_Macaulay._
“The unbought grace of life, the chief defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone.”—_Burke._
“The little that is known, and the circumstance that little is known, must be considered as honorable to him.”—_Macaulay._
“Books that you can carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.”—_Dr. Johnson._
REMARKS.
1. A phrase is one of the smaller divisions of a sentence, and consists of two or more words. Apart from the rest of the sentence, it is incomplete in meaning. It does not, like a clause, include a subject and a verb.
2. When two brief expressions are connected by a conjunction, it is better to omit punctuation marks; as, “Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.”—_Izaak Walton._
3. When words and phrases form a series, a conjunction being used only with the last phrase, they should be separated from each other and from what follows by commas; as, “Virtue, merit, and everything that is praiseworthy, will be made the subject of ridicule and buffoonery.”—_Addison._
RULE XVI. _Logical Subject._—When the logical subject ends with a verb, or is separated into parts by commas, or is unusually long, a comma should be placed between the logical subject and the main verb.
EXAMPLES.
“This imaginary promise of divine aid thus mysteriously given, appeared to him at present in still greater progress of fulfillment.”—_Irving._
“The voice of praise, too, coming from those to whom we had thought ourselves unknown, has a magic about it that must be felt to be understood.”—_Charles Lever._
“Those who can put the best countenance upon the outrages of this nature which are offered them, are not without their secret anguish.”—_Addison._
REMARKS.
1. The logical subject consists of the name of the person or thing, of which something is affirmed, together with its modifying words. It is “the subject according to the real meaning or logic of the sentence.”
2. Some writers always place a comma before the verb, when its subject consists of many words.
RULE XVII. _Contrasted Expressions._—Contrasted expressions or comparisons should be separated by a comma.
EXAMPLES.
“Of the other two men, one was a species of giant, the other a sort of dwarf.”—_Hugo._
“The more I reflected upon it, the more important it appeared.”—_Goldsmith._
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”—_Psalms._
“Master books, but do not let them master you. Read to live, not live to read.”—_Bulwer._
REMARKS.
1. When the comparison is short and the words closely connected, the comma may be omitted.
2. When _so—that_, _so—as_, _rather—than_, _more—than_, connect expressions, the comma is usually omitted; as, “Ingratitude never so thoroughly pierces the human heart as when it proceeds from those in whose behalf we have been guilty of transgression.”—_Fielding._
When, however, the expressions themselves are divided into smaller parts by commas, or are unusually long, they should be separated by a comma; as,—
“So over-violent, or over-civil, That every man with him was God or Devil.”—_Dryden._
3. When two short expressions are united by _as_ or _than_, a comma should not be used; as,—
“He knew what’s what, and that’s as high As metaphysic wit can fly.”—_Butler._
When, however, the expressions are long, it is better to use a comma; as, “I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it.”—_Dr. Johnson._
4. When the first expression is negative and the other affirmative, a comma should be placed between the expressions and before the negative word, if it does not commence a sentence; as, “The world generally gives its admiration, not to the man who does what nobody else even attempts to do, but to the man who does best what multitudes do well.”—_Macaulay._
If, however, a finite verb immediately precedes the negative word, the comma should be omitted; as, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”—_Confucius._
RULE XVIII. _Numeral Figures._—Arabic numbers should be separated into periods of three figures each, commencing at the right.
EXAMPLE.
2,509,909,456.
REMARK.
Dates should not be separated into periods; as, 1877.
RULE XIX. _Expressions at the End of Sentences._—It is frequently necessary, at the end of a sentence, to separate an expression beginning with a preposition from the rest of the sentence, in order to avoid ambiguity.
EXAMPLES.
“He trudged along, unknowing what he sought, And whistled as he went, for want of thought.”—_Dryden._
“Angling is always to be considered as a stick and a string, with a fly at one end and a fool at the other.”—_Swift._
GENERAL REMARK.
A comma should always be used, when it aids in bringing out the meaning of the writer, or in avoiding ambiguity.
THE SEMICOLON.
RULE I. _Long Sentences._—When the smaller divisions of sentences are separated by commas, the main divisions should be separated by semicolons.
EXAMPLES.
“Sheridan, Pitt, and Fox all drank hard and worked hard; they were all great in the councils of the nation, but not one could rule his own household.”—_London Athenæum._
“Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong; Was every thing by starts, and nothing long.”—_Dryden._
“Nor is it always in the most distinguished achievements that men’s virtues or vices may be best discerned; but very often an action of small note, a short saying, or a jest, shall distinguish a person’s real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles.”—_Plutarch._
RULE II. _Expressions Complete in Themselves._—Short expressions, complete in themselves but slightly connected in meaning, may be separated by semicolons.
EXAMPLES.
“We do not want precepts so much as patterns; an example is the softest and least invidious way of commanding.”—_Pliny._
“It is a beautiful thing to model a statue and give it life; to mould an intelligence and instil truth therein is still more beautiful.”—_Hugo._
“There are on every subject a few leading and fixed ideas; their tracks may be traced by your own genius as well as by reading.”—_Sheridan._
REMARK.
When _as_ introduces an example, a semicolon should be placed before and a comma after it.
RULE III. _Series of Expressions._—When several clauses follow each other in succession, having a common dependence on some part of the sentence, they should be separated from each other by semicolons, and from the clause on which they depend, by a comma.
EXAMPLE.
“If such men will make a firm and solemn pause, and meditate dispassionately on its importance; if they will contemplate it in all its attributes, and trace it to all its consequences, they will not hesitate to part with trivial objections to a constitution, the rejection of which would, in all probability, put a final period to the Union.”—_Hamilton._
REMARK.
Commas may be used instead of semicolons, when the clauses are short; as, “When public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments.”—_Webster._
GENERAL REMARK.
When the members of a sentence seem to be loosely connected, they are frequently separated by semicolons.
EXAMPLES.
“Honest name is goodly; but he that hunteth only for that, is like him that hath rather seem warm than be warm.”—_Sir Thomas Wyatt._
“Some blemishes may undoubtedly be detected in his character; but the more carefully it is examined, the more will it appear sound in the noble parts.”—_Macaulay._
Some writers use commas in the examples given above in preference to semicolons, and usage varies so much among our best writers that it is impossible to lay down a general rule that will be applicable in all cases. If it is desirable to indicate a somewhat close connection between the members of a sentence, a comma should be used; if the connection is slight, it is better to use a semicolon.
THE COLON.
RULE I. _Long Sentences._—When the smaller divisions of sentences are separated by semicolons, the main divisions should be separated by a colon.
EXAMPLES.
“Emulation is a dangerous passion to encourage, in some points, in young men; it is so linked with envy: if you reproach your son for not surpassing his school-fellows, he will hate those who are before him.”—_Sheridan._
“A man over ninety is a great comfort to all his elderly neighbors: he is a picket-guard at the extreme outpost; and the young folks of sixty and seventy feel that the enemy must get by him before he can come near the camp.”—_O. W. Holmes._
RULE II. _A Quotation._—A colon should precede a long quotation. If, however, the quotation is short, it is better to use a comma.
EXAMPLES.
Socrates recommended to one of his disciples the following prayer: “O Jupiter, give us those things which are good for us, whether they are such things as we pray for, or such things as we do not pray for; and remove from us those things which are hurtful, though they are such things as we pray for.”
When the Earl of Dudley took leave of Sydney Smith, on going from London to Yorkshire, he said: “You have been laughing at me constantly, Sydney, for the last seven years, and yet, in all that time, you never said a single thing to me that I wished unsaid.”
REMARK.
1. When the quotation is long, or it begins a new paragraph, a dash is frequently placed after the colon.
2. When a direct quotation is introduced into the middle of a sentence, a comma should be used; as, “He was surprised, but replied, ‘I am not the king, he is there,’ pointing at the same time to a different part of the hall.”—_Lingard._
RULE III. _Enumeration of Particulars._—A colon should precede an enumeration of particulars, when they are formally introduced by _thus_, _following_, _as follows_, _this_, _these_, _&c._
EXAMPLES.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”—_Jefferson._
“The penalty is graduated thus: the mildest, confiscation; the moderate, closing the shop; the severest, exposure.”—_Lippincott’s Magazine._
REMARKS.
1. When the particulars are preceded by a colon, they are usually separated from each other by semicolons, as in the examples given above.
2. If the particulars are not introduced by _thus_, _following_, &c., they should be preceded by a semicolon; as, “Grammar is divided into four parts; Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.”
3. When the particulars are preceded by a semicolon, they are usually separated from each other by commas.
4. Sometimes a comma and dash are used instead of a semicolon; as, “Grammar is divided into four parts,—Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.”
GENERAL REMARK.
The colon is used by some writers to separate short expressions that are complete in themselves, but slightly connected in meaning.
EXAMPLES.
“But men are men: the best sometimes forget.”—_Shakespeare._
“It [the Seine] is the wash-tub and summer bath-tub of its citizens; it was the birthplace of Paris, and it is too often the grave of her children.”—_Lippincott’s Magazine._
If a conjunction is used, it is better to use a semicolon; as,—
“She cannot separate her name from his without lessening it; for it is equally incrusted with his greatness as with his faults.”—_Lamartine._
She cannot separate her name from his without lessening it: it is equally incrusted with his greatness as with his faults.
The colon is not as commonly used as formerly. A semicolon would be preferred by very many writers in all sentences similar to the examples given above. See Rule II. p. 23.
THE PERIOD.
RULE I. _Complete Sentences._—A period should be placed at the end of a sentence, when it is complete in meaning and construction, and is declarative or imperative in its nature.
EXAMPLES.
“Swift boasted that he was never known to steal a hint.”—_Macaulay._
“But evil is wrought by want of thought, As well as want of heart.”—_Hood._
“It is a great evil not to be able to bear an evil.”—_Bion._
REMARK.
A period should always be placed after the title of an essay, oration, after a signature, an address of a person, &c.
RULE II. _Abbreviations._—A period should be used after every abbreviation.
EXAMPLES.
Dr. Samuel A. Jones. Mr. C. R. Miller. Mrs. T. S. Applegate. Miss Hattie E. Knapp.
Esq., Esquire. Jan., January. Mich., Michigan. Hon., Honorable. Pro tem., for the time being. Ans., Answer. D. D., Doctor of Divinity. B. C., before Christ. Rev., Reverend. P., page; pp., pages. Pres., President. Rec. Sec., Recording Secretary. N. Y., New York. A. D., in the year of our Lord. A. M., Master of Arts. M. C., Member of Congress. No., in number, number. Co., County. &c. or etc., and so forth.
REMARKS.
1. It should be remembered that the period thus used, simply indicates an abbreviation, and that punctuation marks are to be used, in addition to the period, when required. When a word, written in full, requires a punctuation mark after it, the same punctuation mark should be used after the word, when it is abbreviated; as, Adrian, Michigan, January 5, 1877; Adrian, Mich., Jan. 5, 1877.
2. Some proper names are not abbreviations, and consequently a period should not be used; as, Ben Jonson, Fred Knapp. When Ben. stands for Benjamin, and Fred. for Frederick, a period should be used.
3. When numerals are represented by the letters of the alphabet, periods are placed after them; as, Gen. vii. 1, 7, 8.
4. In numbering pages, no mark should be placed after 1, 2, 3, 4, &c.
5. When a letter, used as an abbreviation, is doubled to indicate the plural, the period should be placed after the last letter; as, pp. for pages, LL. D. for Doctor of Laws.
6. In abbreviating words, sometimes the first letters are used, sometimes the first and last, and sometimes the first and some letter near the middle of the word; as, Ala. for Alabama, Chas. for Charles, Wm. for William, MS. for manuscript.
7. A list of abbreviations will be found at the close of any good dictionary.
INTERROGATION POINT.
RULE I. _Direct Question._—A direct question must be followed by an interrogation point.
EXAMPLES.
“Who ever knew truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”—_Milton._
“Are you good men and true?”—_Shakespeare._
EXCLAMATION POINT.
RULE I. _Strong Emotion._—The exclamation point is used after expressions denoting strong emotion.
EXAMPLES.
“Discipline of mind! say rather starvation, confinement, torture, annihilation.”—_Macaulay._
“My valor is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palms of my hands.”—_Sheridan._
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child!”—_Shakespeare._
REMARK.
To express an unusual degree of emotion, more than one exclamation point may be used.
RULE II. _Interjections._—All interjections except _O_ may be followed by an exclamation point.
EXAMPLES.
“But, alas! to make me The fixed figure of the time, for scorn To point his slow unmoving finger at.”—_Shakespeare._
“Oh! blessed temper, whose unclouded ray Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day.”—_Pope._
“O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!”—_Shakespeare._
REMARKS.
1. When the connection between the interjection and what follows is very close, it is sometimes better to put the exclamation point at the end of the sentence; as,—
“Oh for that ancient spirit Which curbed the Senate’s will!”—_Macaulay._
2. When it is desirable to express strong feeling through-out an entire sentence, the exclamation point should be placed at the end; as,—
“Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note! Ho, lictors, clear the way!”—_Macaulay._
RULE III. _Address._—Expressions of address, when emphatic, may be followed by an exclamation point.
EXAMPLES.
“Lord! what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such music [music of the nightingale] on earth.”—_Izaak Walton._
“Hail, candle-light! without disparagement to sun or moon, the kindest luminary of the three.”—_Lamb._
“Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain.”—_Goldsmith._
“Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy.”—_Byron._
THE DASH.
RULE I. _Broken Sentences._—When a sentence is broken off abruptly, or there is an unexpected change in the sentiment, or hesitation is to be indicated, a dash should be used.
EXAMPLES.
_Prince._—“I tell you what, my cousin Buckingham,—”
_Buck._—“What, my gracious lord?”—_Shakespeare._
“I only feel—Farewell—Farewell!”—_Byron._
“You will think me foolish;—but—but—may it not be that some invisible angel has been attracted by the simplicity and good faith with which our children set about their undertaking? May he not have spent an hour of his immortality in playing with those dear little souls?”—_Hawthorne._
“Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but—_live for it_.”—_Colton._
RULE II. _Concluding Clause._—When several expressions follow each other in succession, having a common dependence on the concluding part of the sentence, a dash is frequently placed before the clause on which they depend.
EXAMPLES.
“If you think it a crime in this writer that his language has not been braided and festooned as elegantly as it might be; that he has not pinched the miserable plaits of his phraseology, nor placed his patches and feathers with that correctness of millinery which became him,—then find a civil and obliging verdict against the printer!”—_Curran._
“To foster industry, to promote union, to cherish religious peace,—these were the honest purposes of Lord Baltimore during his long supremacy.”—_Bancroft._
REMARKS.
1. A dash is sometimes used to give prominence or emphasis to an emphatic conclusion; as, “Fortune, friends, kindred, home,—all were gone.”—_Prescott._
2. When such words as _namely_, _that is_, &c., are omitted, a dash is sometimes used; as, “Many actions, like the Rhone, have two sources,—one pure, and the other impure.”—_Hare._
3. When a word or an expression is repeated for emphasis, a dash should be placed before it; as, “It is this, I conjure Your Lordships, for your honor, for the honor of the nation, for the honor of human nature, now intrusted to your care,—it is this duty that the Commons of England, speaking through us, claims at your hands.”—_Sheridan._
RULE III. _Subjects._—When the subject of a general statement, or the subject of a quotation, is in the same paragraph with the subject-matter, a dash should separate the subject from what follows.
EXAMPLES.
The Bible.—“A person who professes to be a critic in the niceties of the English language ought to have the Bible at his fingers’ ends.”—_Macaulay._
Letter-Writing.—“Common interests are necessary to give permanent stability to epistolary connections. We may love a man dearly, and yet find no time to write ten lines to him.”—_From the German of Rudolph Lindau._
REMARKS.
1. A subject is a word or expression about which some statement is made.
2. A dash should be placed between a quotation and the author from whom the quotation is taken.
3. When a question and an answer are in the same paragraph, a dash is frequently inserted between the two; as, “Saw you my lord?”—“No, lady.”
4. When _as_, _thus_, _as follows_, &c., introduce an example or a quotation, a dash should be placed after the comma or colon, if what follows commences a new paragraph; as,—
“All we possess, and use not on the road, Adds to the burden we must bear.”—_Goethe._
RULE IV. _Letters or Figures Omitted._—When letters or figures are omitted, a dash should be used to indicate the omission.
EXAMPLES.
“Why, to comfort me, must Alice W⸺n be a goblin?”—_Lamb._
Mark xi. 1-10. Gen. v. 3-9.
REMARK.
3-9 is equivalent to 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
GENERAL REMARK.
The dash is frequently used to give prominence or emphasis to an expression.
EXAMPLES.
“In the quiet air, there was a sound of distant singing,—shepherd voices.”—_Dickens._
“Wealth has its temptations,—so has power.”—_Robertson._
“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rains may enter,—but the king of England cannot enter! all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.”—_Pitt._
RULE V. _Parenthesis._—Two dashes are sometimes used instead of the usual marks of parenthesis.
EXAMPLES.
“A yellow claw—the very same that had clawed together so much wealth—poked itself out of the coach window, and dropt some copper coins upon the ground.”—_Hawthorne._
“Jackson—the omniscient Jackson he was called—was of this period. He had the reputation of possessing more multifarious knowledge than any man of his time.”—_Lamb._
REMARKS.
1. When the sentence, without the parenthesis, would require a comma where the dashes are used, each dash should be preceded by a comma; as, “See that aged couple,—a sad sight, truly,—John Proctor, and his wife Elizabeth.”—_Hawthorne._
2. If the parenthetical expression is a question or expresses emotion, an interrogation or an exclamation point should be placed before the second dash; as, “The laurel of the hero—alas for humanity that it should be so!—grows best on the battle field.”
MARKS OF PARENTHESIS.
RULE I. _Parenthesis._—When an expression breaks the connection between the different parts of a sentence, and might be omitted without affecting the sense or the construction, it should be inclosed in parenthetical marks.
EXAMPLES.
“Of all sound of all bells (bells, the music nighest bordering heaven) most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year.”—_Lamb._
“The tuneful Nine (so sacred legends tell) First waked their heavenly lyre these scenes to tell!”—_Campbell._
“Their intellectual wardrobe (to confess fairly) has few whole pieces in it.”—_Lamb._
REMARKS.
1. When parenthetical marks are used, it is sometimes necessary to use additional marks.
_a._ When the sentence, without the parenthesis, requires a punctuation mark where the parenthetical marks are used, the punctuation mark should be placed after the last mark of the parenthesis; as,—
“Know then this truth (enough for man to know), ‘Virtue alone is happiness below.’”—_Pope._
_b._ Sometimes the parenthesis requires a punctuation mark before the last mark of the parenthesis; as, “Spill not the morning (the quintessence of the day!) in recreations.”—_Thomas Fuller._