VI.

Use the comma between two clauses, one of which depends on the other (a): omit the comma, however, if the clauses are intimately connected in both sense and construction (b).

(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 I would have redoubled.

(a) If our will be ready, our powers are not deficient.

(b) He roused himself from his reverie as they approached

the side of his bed.

(b) The Board may hardly be reminded that the power of expending any portion of the principal of our Fund expired at the end of two years.

VII.

Separate from the context vocative words or expressions: by one comma, when they occur at the beginning (a) or at the end (b) of a sentence; by two commas, when they occur in the body of a sentence (c).

(a) Mark Antony, here, take you Cæsar's body.

(b) What would you, Desdemona ?

(c) Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, fellow-citizens, were successively Presidents of the United States.

(c) I remain, Sir, your obedient servant.

(c) No, Sir, I thank you.

VIII.

Separate from the context, in like manner, many adverbs (a), and, usually, adverbial (b), participial (c), or absolute (d) phrases, when they modify the sentence as a whole or connect it with another sentence.

(a) The pursuers, too, were close behind.

(a) Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin.

(b) The farmers of the neighborhood had made haste, as soon as the event of the fight was known, to send hogsheads of their best cider as peace-offerings to the victors.

(c) Without attempting a formal definition of the word, I am inclined to consider rhetoric, when reduced to a system in books, as a body of rules derived from experience and observation, extending to all communication by language and designed to make it efficient.

(d) To make a long story short, the company broke up, and returned to the more important concerns of the election.

IX.

Separate from the context, in like manner, those relative clauses which are explanatory or supplementary merely (a); but, generally speaking, not those which are restrictive or determinative (b). Campbell's Rhetoric, p. 255.)

(See

(a) At five in the morning of the seventh, Grey, who had wandered from his friends, was seized by two of the Sussex scouts.

(b) 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.

X.

Separate parenthetic or intermediate expressions from the context, by commas (a), by dashes alone (b) or combined with other stops (c), or by parentheses [] (d). The last are less used now than formerly. The dash should not be used too frequently, but is to be preferred to the comma when the use of the latter would cause ambiguity or obscurity, when the sentence contains numerous commas (e). Brackets [] are used when words (not the author's) (f) or signs (g) are inserted in a sentence to explain the meaning or to supply an omission.

as

(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.

(b), (a) It will — I am sure it will

goes on, be found good for this.

more and more, as time

(c) When he was in a rage, -and he very often was in a rage,

he swore like a porter.

(d) Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect.

(e), (a) In the insurrection of provinces, either distant or separated 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.

(ƒ) The chairman of our Committee of Foreign Relations [Mr. Eppes], at the time he introduced these amendments to the House, exhibited the true character of this policy.

(g) See brackets enclosing the parenthetic sign in X., line 4.

XI.

The dash, alone or combined with other stops, should be used where the construction or the sense is suddenly changed or suspended (a); where a long or significant pause is desired (b); where a thought or a word is repeated for emphasis (c); in rapid narration (d); where an ellipsis occurs of namely, that is, and the like (e), or an omission of words, letters, or figures (ƒ); and between a title and the subject-matter (g), or the subject-matter and the authority for it (h), when both are in the same paragraph.

(a) The only consequence will be that the contest, instead of being undertaken while we have strength to support it, will be reserved not for our posterity, but to a time when we ourselves shall have surrendered all our arms to the people with whom we are to contend * -nor will that period be distant.

(a) The man, it is his system: we do not try a solitary word or act, but his habit.

(a) To let loose hussars and to bring up artillery, to govern with lighted matches, and to cut, and push, and prime — I call this, not vigor, but the sloth of cruelty and ignorance.

(a) Great honor to the Fire-flies! But- .!. (3) He thought his whistle was answered· sweeping sharply through the dry branches.

- it was but a blast

(b) My faithful slave is murdered, and my goods taken for a prey and Wamba - where is Wamba?

(b) "Long, long will I remember your features, and bless God that I leave my noble deliverer united with”.

She stopped short.

* Some would put a semicolon before the dash.

(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, ing Army of the poor?

-the increasing Stand

(d) Hollo! ho! the whole world's asleep! - bring out the horses, grease the wheels, tie on the mail; and drive a nail into that moulding, I'll not lose a moment.

(e) This deplorable scene admits of but one addition, — that we are governed by councils from which a reasonable man can expect no remedy but poison, no relief but death.

(ƒ) In the first place, I presume, you will have no difficulty in breaking your word with Mrs. C

(ƒ) 1874-75.

-y.

(g), (h) Diá-na.- The usual pronunciation is Di-án-a.SMART.

XII.

Beware of using either commas or periods in the place of semicolons [;] and colons [:]. Long sentences broken only by commas are obscure; numerous short sentences separated by periods convey thought vaguely and in fragments: by either extreme, eye and mind are fatigued.

XIII.

Use the semicolon or, very rarely, the colon between clauses, each of which is subdivided by a number of commas (a).

(a) Death is there associated, not, as in Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul's, with genius and virtue, with public veneration