which precedes the dash. Sometimes a comma is used before the dash thus employed, sometimes not. Usage in this respect is unsettled. In such cases the construction of the member which follows the dash must be carefully adjusted to the construction of that which precedes. When the dash alone is used, if the parenthetic or substituted or amended expression does not close the construction (or, at least, affect, equally with what precedes the whole construction following), another dash must be used after it. We give examples: "Neither should writing be disfigured by the contrary practice,―by omitting capitals, when, in all propriety, they ought to be introduced." In pointing this we should prefer to omit the comma before the dash, and substitute a dash for the comma after "capitals." "I may be censured-perhaps I may be laughed at, for having said so much against the colon and semicolon." The writer in the last example, as it were, amends his expression, or introduces a substitute. A dash is not repeated after the substituted expression, because the following part of the sentence affects or modifies the substituted and the original expression alike. "In 1746, he published "The Castle of Indolence'-the most highly finished of all his compositions," &c. “The view from this remarkable group of mountains-the most remarkable by far in the island-differs much from any other with which I am acquainted." In this example the words between the dashes are explanatory.

Upon the whole, we must agree with those who have asserted that the dash has been too unsparingly and too recklessly employed by many English authors. Yet we do not condemn the use of this mark judiciously employed for the purpose last mentioned. This use may be regarded as a legitimate extension of its original use to denote a break in the sense. This is a break in the construction—a sudden turn in the form of the expression. It often happens that what is thus separated by a dash might be separated by parenthetic marks. Parenthetic marks are used when a new, often an extraneous thought is thrown between the parts of a construction, and they can be used in multitudes of cases when neither commas nor dashes can with propriety be employed. We would use the parenthetic marks to indicate an interpolated thought (without confining them exclusively to this function, for they may with propriety be used to separate an explanatory expression), and the dash or dashes to indicate the introduction of another mode of expressing a preceding thought, a repetition of the same thought in a different form, or an equivalent substituted for it. The usage described, we think, agrees with the practice of the best writers of the present day.

(45) The dash is sometimes used to indicate the place of an omitted word, or, more generally, some letters of a word; thus, The Mfor The Ministers. Omitted words and letters are also represented by

-rs,

(45) Describe another purpose for which the dash is sometimes employed, and tell what other marks are used occasionally for the same purpose.

asterisks; thus, **** Omitted letters are often represented by hyphens, or by dots or points; a hyphen or point being usually substituted for each letter omitted; thus, P..... .t, for Parliament.

PARENTHETIC MARKS.-(46) The use of parenthetic marks, or crotchets, has been incidentally explained in treating of the dash. They are employed to introduce a sentence, a phrase, or sometimes a single word within a sentence. Sometimes a thought having a very remote (if any) connection with the general tenor of the discourse is introduced in this way. Neither commas nor dashes can with propriety be employed in such cases. In reading, such parentheses are usually marked by a suppression of the voice. Brackets [] are sometimes employed for similar purposes, most frequently, we think, to inclose interpolated words. When a parenthesis occurs within a parenthesis (an occurrence which should be avoided), brackets are employed to indicate the greater parenthesis, and crotchets to indicate the parenthesis included within the greater.

We may here describe some other marks used for certain purposes in written discourse.

(47) THE APOSTROPHE (') is used to mark the omission of a letter; thus, e'er for ever, 'tis for it is, &c. We have already noticed the manner in which the apostrophe is used to indicate the English genitive case. In this case, too, it marks the omission of the e or i which anciently belonged to the genitive termination.

(48) THE HYPHEN (-) is used to indicate compounded words; as, printing-press, &c. The hyphen is used when part of a word is carried to the next line. In doing this, care must be taken never to divide a syllable.

(49) QUOTATION MARKS ("") are used at the beginning and end of a passage to indicate that it is quoted or borrowed from some other writer. Sometimes these marks are repeated at the commencement of every line of a quotation. These marks are called by the French "Guillemets," we believe, from the name of the inventor of this contrivance. We have no appropriate name for them in English.

(50) THE DIERESIS consists of two points placed over the last of two vowels, to indicate that they are to be pronounced in separate syllables—not as a diphthong. They are unnecessary except over vowels which generally coalesce into a diphthong, and not even then in words which are in familiar We have examples in the proper names Laocoön, Boötes, &c.

use.

(46) Describe the use of parenthetic marks, or crotchets and brackets.

(47) Describe the use of the apostrophe.

(48) Describe the two uses of the hyphen.
(49) Describe the use of quotation marks.
(50) Describe the use of diaresis.

(51) THE BRACE is employed to connect two or more lines, for the purpose of indicating that the words on the opposite side of the brace have a common relation to what these lines severally contain. Example:

shall

"Future, {I will
} write."

Here we have two braces; the second indicates that the word write belongs in common to I shall and I will—that, in fact, it is to be repeated with both; and the first brace indicates that all which follows and is embraced by it, has a common relation to the word future. More examples of the use of this mark may be found in the Synoptical Table of English Verbs, pp. 152, 153. This mark is now seldom employed, except in the construction of tables. Formerly it was often used in poetry to connect triplets (see Appendix on Versification): but both triplets and braces are out of fashion at present.

(52) THE ACCENT (') is used (chiefly in dictionaries) to ark that syllable of a word on which the chief stress of the voice is laid in pronunciation. (53) THE SECTION (§) is used to mark the divisions of discourse. Formerly THE PARAGRAPH (¶) was used to indicate the transition to a new subject; but it is now seldom employed for this purpose, except in some editions of the Sacred Scriptures.

(54) THE CARET having the form of an inverted v is placed, in manuscript, under the line to indicate the accidental omission of words. The words omitted are placed above the line, and the caret shows the place at which they are to be inserted. This mark is not used in printed books.

(55) The following marks are employed in referring to notes placed at the bottom of the page, and generally in the order of precedence in which we here arrange them: viz., for the first note THE ASTERISK (*) is employed to indicate the place to which the note belongs, and to designate the note; for the second, when more than one note occurs on the same page, THE OBELISK (†): for the third, THE DOUBLE OBELISK (‡); and so in succession THE SECTION (§); THE PARALLELS (); THE PARAGRAPH (¶); THE Index ( ). Sometimes, when these marks are all exhausted, we commence again from the beginning, doubling each mark; thus (**), (tt), &c. Letters and figures are often used for the same purpose.

(56) CAPITAL LETTERS.-These are employed at the beginning of words. 1st. To mark the commencement of every sentence; of every line of poetry, and of every quotation and every example formally introduced.

(51) Describe the use of the brace. (52) Describe the use of the accent.

(53) Describe the use of the section.

(54) Describe the use of the caret.

(55) Enumerate in order the several marks used for reference.

(56) Mention the several purposes for which capital letters are employed in the beginning of words.

2d. To distinguish every proper name, including the appropriate designa tions of persons, countries or regions, states, mountains, rivers, cities, ships, and all adjectives formed from such proper names; the names of months, and days of the week; titles of honor, or office, which have become a part of the appellation of the individual to whom they are applied; and names of personified objects; as, for example :

"Hail, sacred Polity, by Freedom reared!

Hail, sacred Freedom, when by Law restrained!"

3d. The pronoun I, and the interjection O are always written with a capital letter.

4th. Writers often commence with a capital the word which expresses the subject of present discussion, or any word to which they wish to draw particular attention.

(57) ITALICS are often employed in printing words or passages to which the author wishes to call the special attention of the reader, or which he wishes to distinguish for any purpose. SMALL CAPITALS are introduced, generally as a more emphatic indication of the same purpose; and CAPITALS for a still more emphatic. Italics are represented in manuscript by a single line under the word or passage, small capitals by two lines, and capitals by three.

NOTE (a).-The word sentence is most loosely employed by grammarians. Sometimes it is used to express what we have thought it expedient to call in the course of the preceding treatise a PROPOSITION, avoiding the term sentence on account of the vague manner in which it is applied by most writers. Most generally the word sentence is used to signify so much of discourse as forming complete sense is closed by a full cadence in speaking, and by a period or full point in writing. Of such a sentence no good definition has been given, nor, we believe, can be given. It is essential to such an assemblage of words that they should be fit to stand logically as well as grammatically independent, or form a sense. Sentence (sententia) from its etymology implies this. But whilst this condition is satisfied, authors and speakers are left at full liberty, especially in constructions consisting of an agglomeration of independent propositions, to include less or more matter in a sentence according to their own judgment or their caprice. Some divide that matter into several separate sentences separated by full points, which others separate only by semicolons-sometimes only by commas.

There are strong objections to excessively long sentences, and to an unvaried succession of very long or very short sentences. But whilst a lucid grammatical structure is secured, the whole subject of long and short sentences comes under the supervision, not of the grammarian, but of the rheto.

(57) Describe the purposes for which italics, small capitals, and capitals, are occasion ally introduced in printing.

rician. It is not generally the mere length of a sentence, but the complica tion and clumsy arrangement of its modifying members which produces obscurity, and renders it faulty as a grammatical structure. Very long sentences are sometimes so carefully constructed as to be perfectly clear, and entirely unobjectionable in a grammatical point of view; and, on the contrary, short sentences do not always escape the charge of obscurity from faulty grammatical construction.

NOTE (6). It is important here to observe that pauses in discourse are employed for other purposes, besides that of indicating the grammatical divisions of discourse, whilst diacritical points are employed nearly exclusively for this last purpose. Pauses are often employed for rhetorical purposes, and for purposes connected with versification, where no pause is required to indicate any grammatical division. A suspension of the voice for the purpose of drawing breath may take place where there is no grammatical division in the construction, for example, between the subject and the predicate; and rhetorical pauses are often made for effect (to draw attention) between words which are in the closest grammatical union. This fact has been apparently overlooked by our writers on punctuation. You would suppose from their language that the points are used to represent the pauses in spoken discourse, instead of helping to exhibit the grammatical structure of discourse more clearly. So far as pauses in speech are used for the same purpose, points and pauses will naturally correspond with each other, being intended to mark the same distinctions, though the former are not to be regarded as the representatives of the latter. But when it is attempted, forgetting the direct purpose of punctuation, to make it agree with the pauses throughout, we immediately involve ourselves, as was to be expected, in difficulties, and subject our rules and practice to a charge of inconsistency, by attempting to accommodate our system to two sets of laws which do not always coincide; namely, the laws of grammatical construction, and the laws which regulate the pauses in human speech. We have an example of this inconsistency in the rule given by some grammarians for placing a comma between the subject and predicate of a simple proposition, when the proposition happens to be long and the subject noun is accompanied with inseparable adjuncts. For instance, those who give this rule would place a comma before the verb is in the following proposition; thus, "To be totally indifferent to praise and censure, is a real defect in character." This makes punctuation depend not on grammatical structure, but on the length of a proposition. Such punctuation capriciously separating the subject of a proposition from its predicate, is certainly not well calculated to assist the reader in readily ascertaining the sense of an author; which is the great purpose of punctuation. We may in this manner indicate where a pause or suspension of the voice may be made within a simple proposition with least injury to the expression of the sense; but this is aside from the proper purpose aimed at by the punctuation used in our books. To indicate the places