V. INTERROGATION. 368. The note of interrogation must be placed after every distinct question, even though several should occur in succession, to the same point and demanding the same answer. 369. It must not be inserted, however, after words which merely record the fact of a question having been asked. EXAMPLES. (368.) Who warranted this murder? From what divine precept is it derived? What revelation sanctions it? Who vests the civil authorities with this power over human life? Say, gentle spirit, whither art thou fled? To what pale region of the silent dead? (369.) An infidel once conversing with a Christian, asked him what his God was, and how large he was. Meeting a friend the other day, he asked me where I was going. (The authors of these two sentences pointed them with interrogation and quotation marks.) VI. EXCLAMATION. RULE I. 370. The note of exclamation is to be inserted after every interjection, except O followed by a noun, in which case it falls under the next rule. EXAMPLES. (370.) Do you hear that faint groan? Hark! 'tis drowned in the yell Of the storm. Twas his last agonising endeavour! Ah! saw you his red gore stain the watery swell, As he dashed 'gainst the sharp rock, and vanished for ever? RULE II. 371. The note of exclamation is to be inserted after any combination of words expressing a burst of surprise, admiration, joy, or grief; sometimes also after expressions of irony and contempt, supplication and command. 372. Sometimes these feelings are expressed in an interrogative form; but if no answer is either expected or implied, the note of exclamation and not of interrogation must be used. The exclamation is a mark that should be sparingly used: its excess indicates bombast and waste emphasis. EXAMPLES. (371.) Whispering with white lips: The foe! They come ! they come!'-BYRON. Hoo! Marcius is coming home!-SHAKS. Ah, me! how sweet is love!-SHAKS. She pitied! but her pity only shed, &c.-POPE. Child, husband, parents, Adosinda's all!-SOUTHEY. Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides! Lochiel, beware of the day!-CAMPBELL. Out, out, brief candle!-SHAKS. Fan! hood! glove! scarf! is her laconic style. While all tongues cried: 'God save thee, Bolingbroke !'-SHAKS. (372.) The heart, the gifted heart, Who may reveal its depths to human sight! The softness of its love, the grandeur of its might! What a slender interval separates great capacity from insanity! On what a beetling ledge' the man of genius tracks his way! By what a fragile tenure does man hold his title to mental superiority, on which he is so accustomed to pride himself! The Lord! How fearful is His name! How wide is His command! (This quotation, from Watt's Lyrics, is there marked with an interrogation at the end of each line.) VII. THE PARENTHESIS. 373. The parenthesis is now little used, its place being supplied by commas or dashes. It is still admitted, however— 374. When a vivacious thought, an ironical remark, or words to be spoken aside, are thrown into the midst of a sentence. 375. When words are introduced to remove an ambiguity or correct an error. 376. To refer to the text of a book. EXAMPLES. (374.) Then flourishes thrice his sword in the air, As a compliment due to a lady so fair; (How I tremble to think of the blood it hath spilt!) Dryden alone (what wonder?) came not nigh; We all expedients tire, And whirl us (happy riddance!) from ourselves.-YOUNG. Our waking dreams are fatal. How I dream Thus, Lays of Minstrels (may they be the last!) On half-strung harps, whine mournful to the blast.-BYRON. (375.) As for the particular occasion of these (charity) schools, there cannot any offer more worthy a generous mind. The noble marquis who had spoken in this debate (the Marquis of Normanby) complained that the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland did not read Hansard's Debates. He (the Duke of Richmond) defended the Lord-Lieutenant for not reading that work. I am now as well as when you was (were) here. Anger may glance into the breast of the wise, but it will only rest (rest only) in the bosom of fools. We overlook the mercies in our possession, and are searching (and search) after those which are out of our reach. (376.) Of the seven things that God hates, pride is first named.(Prov. vi. 16, 17.) David's pride caused the death of 70,000 of his subjects.-(1 Chron. xxi. 14.) VIII. THE DASH. RULE I. 377. The dash is used to mark a rhetorical pause when a word is repeated with explanation. EXAMPLES. (377.) Christians have both a moral and a religious character to support-a character which, without charity and the love of their neighbours, loses its divinest features, and forfeits its purity and its lustre. Vice is ever energetic; and if we wish to destroy it, we must meet it with a proportionate energy- an energy, not the mere effervescence of a momentary feeling, but an energy, systematic and consistent, ever new, and ever young,' competent to a continuity of effort, equal to that to which it is opposed. Moore is a true poet· poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of the passions of the human heart. The principles of virtue naturally exist in every mind-principles which the benevolent Giver of Life implanted there, that the creature might be worthy of the Creator, and be fitted for happiness, both in time and eternity. RULE II. -a 378. The dash marks an abrupt turn in the sentence; its dismemberment or unexpected termination through deep feeling. EXAMPLES. (378.) His children- But here my heart began to bleed, and I was forced to go on with another part of the portrait.-STERNE. 'But Ibut I' And her feelings overpowered her.-Mrs S. C. HALL. Nature instantly ebbed again-the film returned to its place-the pulse fluttered-stopped-went on-throbbed-stopped again-movedstopped. Shall I go on ?-No.-STERNE. He had lived for his love -for his country he died.-MOORE. -It may be a sound A tone of music-summer's eve-or spring A flower-the wind-the ocean-which shall wound.-BYRON. He stops he starts-disdaining to recline.-BYRON. She wrote the words-she stood erect-a queen without a crown. Her lover sinks-she sheds no ill-timed tear; Her chief is slain-she fills his fatal post.-BYRON. He disappeared-draw nearer, child; He died-no one knew how.-H. G. BELL. Yes, partial clans, in every clime Since first commenced the march of time, -H. G. BELL. Which Memory loves, and Heart calls-home.-DELTA. Here, take this cup, though dark it seem, The cup is filled, it is with-tears!-Miss LANDON. Had we Of our sad tale, spite of the pain Remembrance gives, when the fixed dart Is stirred thus in the wound again !—MOORE. 'Sir! I beg leave to tell you, that you are '- 'Dare, sir!' RULE III. 379. The dash often, in modern composition, supplies the place formerly occupied by the parenthesis. The comma is the ordinary mark of a parenthetical sentence; but the dash is used when it must be marked more strongly. EXAMPLES. (379.) In astronomy, as in every other physical science-in every science which rests partly on the observation of nature, and not solely on the mind of man-a faith in testimony is required, that the human race may not be stationary, and that the accumulated treasure of one man, or of one generation of men, may not be lost to another. Approach and read-for thou canst read-the lay.-GRAY. A single phrase-sometimes a word—and the work is done.—BROUGHAM. RULE IV. 380. The dash supplies the place of suppressed letters or words. 381. The dash connects the beginning of a paragraph_with its side-heading; and its termination, if a quotation, with the name of the author. EXAMPLE. (381.) Solitude.-In its strict and literal acceptation, solitude is equally unfriendly to the happiness, and foreign to the nature, of mankind.-ZIMMERMAN. RULE VI. 382. The dash supplies the place of the preposition to. EXAMPLES. (382.) Page 10-25. In the year 1820-26. Matt. xi. 16-21. Acts, ii. 1-8; 20-31. |