ments of our author: "Nothing can contribute more towards bringing the powers of genius to their ultimate perfection than a severe judgment, equal in degree to the genius possessed."

7. And with this, I finish the discussion of the structure of sentences: having fully considered them under all the heads I mentioned, of perspicuity, unity, strength and musical arrangement.

8. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.

9. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him.

The parts of No. 1, 2 and 3, are properly separated by the colon, because the connective and is understood.

In No. 4, 5 and 6, namely is understood. The colon is therefore correctly used. In No. 7, 8 and 9, we have at length the proper punctuation before the participles, when employed as in these sentences. I now call the student's attention to the reason for this. The participles when so used, (and the perfect as well as the present is so used, though I have given no examples,) are uniformly abbreviated forms substituted for the finite verb preceded by conjunctions, adverbs, or relative pronouns. Thus, having in No 7, is strictly the equivalent of I have; seeing, in No. 8, of we see; and knowing, in No. 9, of we know; and as these fuller expressions would, if employed, be preceded by the semicolon or colon, according as the connective for might be expressed or understood, no reason can be assigned why their equivalents should not be treated in the same manner; that is, (since the connective, not merely, but also the pronoun, is understood,) with the colon.

Against the use of the comma, which, as we have seen, is employed before the participle so situated, and I may now add, very frequently employed, there is a stronger objection than against that of the semicolon; for the participle is often employed in nearly the same manner after imperfect sense. Observe above the first sentence under the head of colon. "The colon properly separates the parts of a sentence, making perfect sense." The participle making here is the substitute or equivalent of "which make," preceded by imperfect sense. Take another example. "And there was seen a great way off a herd of swine, feeding." Here the participle is a mere abbreviation of "which were feeding," as before preceded by imperfect sense; and consequently it should be separated from what precedes by the comma. How shall we distinguish cases of this kind from such as we find in Nos. 7, 8, 9, if we point them in the same manner?

It should be observed before dismissing this subject, that the participle often appears in what seems to be the one or the other of the two positions which I have just noticed, but which is yet very distinct from both: e. g. "I saw him sliding down hill." "He went crying all the way home." "The horse stood champing the bit." Here the participle limits, restrains or qualifies the object or action, and therefore cannot be separated from it even by the comma, unless some specification of time or place, &c., should intervene; as, "I saw him, just at night, sliding down hill." "The horse stood, in the yard, champing, &c."

2. Examples of improper use.

1. They entered in, and dwelt together: and the second possession was worse than the first.

2. One may have a considerable degree of taste in poetry, elvquence, or any of the fine arts, who has little or hardly any genius for composition or execution in any of these arts: but genius cannot be found without including taste also.

3. But on other occasions, this were improper: for what is the use of melody, or for what end has the poet composed in verse, if in reading his lines, we suppress his numbers, and degrade them, by our pronunciation, into mere prose?

4. These are degrading: whereas, similes are commonly intended to embellish and to dignify.

5. He first lost by his misconduct the flourishing provinces of France, the ancient patrimony of the family: he subjected his kingdom to a shameful vassalage under the see of Rome: he saw the prerogatives of his crown diminished by law, and still more reduced by faction: and he died at last, when in danger of being totally expelled by a foreign power, and of either ending his life miserably in prison, or seeking shelter as a fugitive from the pursuit of his enemies.

6. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: then I beheld all the works of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun.

7. As we perceive the shadow to have moved along the dial, but did not perceive it moving; and it appears the grass has grown, though nobody ever saw it grow: so the advances we make in knowledge, as they make such minute steps, are only perceivable by the distance.

In the first five of these examples, the colon is improperly employed, because the connectives are expressed: in the last two, because it separates parts making imperfect sense.

It may be worth while to notice the improper use of the comma between the sub-parts of the first part of No. 5. At France, we have perfect sense: consequently the comma should be displaced by the colon: which were, the connective and the verb, being suppressed.

IV. THE PERIOD.

The period is properly placed at the end of a complete and independent enunciation of thought. Its relative length is double that of the colon; but under the influence of passion, its length is indeterminate.

As this pause is too well known to need illustration, I shall confine my examples to the purpose of showing its improper use.

Examples of improper use.

1. Jurists may be permitted with comparative safety to pile tome upon tome of interminable disquisition upon the motives, reasons and causes of just and unjust war. Metaphysicians may be suffered with impunity to spin the thread of their speculations until it is attenuated to a cobweb; but for a body created for the government of a great nation, and for the adjustment and protection of its diversified interests, it is worse than folly to speculate upon the causes of war, until the great question shall be presented for immediate action.

2. The most eminent physicians bear uniform testimony to this propitious effect of entire abstinence. And the spirit of inspiration

has recorded, "He that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things."

3. The immortal Edwards, too, repeatedly records his own experience of the happy effect of strict temperance both on the mind and body. And the recent reformations from moderate drinking, in different parts of the land, have revealed numerous examples of renovated health and spirits in consequence of the change.

4. In the full persuasion of the excellency of our government, let us shun those vices which tend to its subversion, and cultivate those virtues which will render it permanent, and transmit it in full vigor to all succeeding ages. Let not the haggard forms of intemperance and luxury ever lift their destroying visages in this happy country. Let economy, frugality, moderation and justice, at home and abroad, mark the conduct of all our citizens. Let it be our constant care to diffuse knowledge and goodness through all ranks of society.

In No. 1, it will be readily observed, that the part beginning with jurists and the part beginning with metaphysicians, bear precisely the same relation to the succeeding conjunction but: a sufficient reason surely against the insertion of the period after war.

In Nos. 2, 3, for the reason that the parts are allied in thought, and connected as propositions by the connective and, the semicolon should have been used.

In No. 4, we have the same connection with the connective understood. The period therefore should give place to the colon.

V. THE DOUBLE PERIOD.

The double period is the pause which occurs at the end of a paragraph, or a series of sentences unfolding the same general thought. It has no sign of its own, but is represented by the common period. It is usually indicated by a break or blank space in the page. This, however, is not always the case; for neither speakers, writers, nor printers, are always accurate in marking the transition from one general thought to another; and when not, the reader must exercise his own judgment in marking it for himself.

The length of the double period, as the name implies, is relatively about double the length of the common period.

No examples are necessary to illustrate this pause; a bare reference to any book within reach, will be sufficient to satisfy the inquiring that this pause has a real existence in nature; and though hitherto unnoticed by writers on elocution, one of great importance to a correct, graceful, and impressive delivery. By neglecting to observe it, many speakers and readers, both at the bar and in the pulpit, as well as in less conspicuous positions, impair seriously the effect of what they speak and read on those who hear them. Many cases of this have fallen under my own observation.

DEVIATIONS FROM THE LEGITIMATE USE OF THE PAUSES WHICH MARK DIVISIONS OF SENSE.

de

I have said at the beginning of this chapter, "that every parture from the proper punctuation, by which the latter is brought in conflict with the delivery, should be systematic; that is to say,

should be for reasons which apply to all cases of the same kind; so that the design of the change in punctuation may be always obvious, and the proper delivery retained notwithstanding."

Unhappily, for the want of a sufficient number of pauses to meet all the exigencies of punctuation, such a departure is frequently necessary; and I now proceed to state the rules in conformity to which, it should uniformly take place. As I have hitherto introduced no rule, not founded in the nature of things, and sustained by abundant examples from the best practice of printers, (the leading practice, in fact, of all printers, but from which they are often seen capriciously wandering,) so here I shall lay down no principle which is not amply justified by the best punctuation in this country and Great Britain. I do not aim at originality, but simply to introduce system, where hitherto, it must be confessed, practice has often been incompatible with itself, often arbitrary, not seldom extremely slovenly, frequently and glaringly false, and, since confusion here must necessarily produce a corresponding confusion in the delivery, always more or less injurious.

I. When the parts (of a sentence) making imperfect sense, are not merely long, but comprise subdivisions which require separation by the comma, we may employ the semicolon to mark their limits, and distinguish them from these subdivisions;* and if, for the same reason, a remoter punctuation be necessary, we may employ the colon.

Examples.

1. The bounding of Satan over the walls of Paradise; his sitting in the shape of a cormorant upon the tree of life, which stood in the centre of it, and overtopped all the other trees in the garden; his alighting among the herd of animals, which are so beautifully represented as playing about Adam and Eve, together with his transforming himself into different shapes, in order to hear their conversation n; are circumstances that give an agreeable surprise to the reader, and are devised with great art to connect that series of adventures, in which the poet has engaged this artifice of fraud.

2. That a man, to whom he was, in a great measure, beholden for his crown, and even for his life; a man, to whom, by every honor and favor, he had endeavored to express his gratitude; whose brother, the Earl of Derby, was his own father-in-law; to whom he had committed the trust of his person, by creating him lord chamberlain; that a man enjoying his full confidence and affection; not actuated by any motive of discontent or apprehension;

* When a sentence contains a succession of similar members making imperfect sense, and any one of them requires the semicolon for the reason assigned; all of them, for the sake of uniformity, may be punctuated in the same manner, though without subdivisions requiring the comma. The first and second examples are pertinent illustrations of this.

that this man should engage in a conspiracy against him, he deemed absolutely false and incredible.

3. Seeing then that the soul has many different faculties, or in other words, many different ways of acting; that it can be intensely pleased or made happy by all these different faculties or ways of acting; that it may be endowed with several latent faculties, which it is not at present in a condition to exert; that we cannot believe the soul is endowed with any faculty which is of no use to it; that whenever any one of these faculties is transcendently pleased, the soul is in a state of happiness; and, in the last place, considering that the happiness of another world is to be the happiness of the whole man; who can question but that there is an infinite variety in those pleasures we are speaking of; and that this fulness of joy will be made up of all those pleasures which the nature of the soul is capable of receiving?

4. Besides the ignorance of masters who teach the first rudiments of reading, and the want of skill or negligence in that article, of those who teach the learned languages; besides the erroneous manner, which the untutored pupils fall into, through the want of early attention in masters, to correct small faults in the beginning, which increase and gain strength with years; besides bad habits contracted from imitation of particular persons, or the contagion of example, from a general prevalence of a certain tone or cant in reading or reciting, peculiar to each school, and regularly transmitted from one generation of boys to another; besides all these, which are fruitful sources of vicious elocution, there is one fundamental error in the method universally used in teaching to read, which at first gives a wrong bias, and leads us ever after blindfold from the right path, under the guidance of a false rule.

5. As the middle, and the fairest, and the most conspicuous places in cities, are usually chosen for the erection of statues and monuments, dedicated to the memory of the most worthy men who have nobly deserved of their country; so should we in the heart and centre of our soul, in the best and highest apartment thereof, in the places most exposed to ordinary observation, and most secure from worldly care, erect lively representations, and lasting memorials of divine bounty.

6. When the gay and smiling aspect of things has begun to leave the passage to a man's heart thus thoughtlessly unguarded; when kind and caressing looks of every object without, that can flatter his senses, have conspired with the enemy within, to betray him, and put him off his defence; when music likewise hath lent her aid, and tried her power upon the passions; when the voice of singing men, and the voice of singing women, with the sound of the viol and the lute, have broke in upon his soul, and in sɔme