hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair." c. The mode of punctuation recommended in the last remark is worthy of being adopted in the generality of the long passages, whose parts are joined by connecting or disjunctive words, which sometimes appear in the writings of the present day. But in the compositions of the old English writers, which, with much excellence of matter, are usually characterized more by unwieldiness than refinement of style, sentences often occur, whose members are united either by a relative pronoun, which is sometimes preceded by a preposition, or by an adverb or participle equivalent to the pronoun. In such cases, it is seldom that the members, however lengthened, can be separated by a period, without injuring the texture of the parts. However painful, therefore, it may be to the eye of the reader to fall on a page unrelieved by periods and corresponding breaks, the editor or the printer of a work of that kind should conform his punctuation to the nature of the composition; never deviating from the original by substituting a full point for the semicolon or the colon, unless where the character of the sentiments or the form of expressing them obviously admits of such a separation. Thus, the colon should be preserved between the members, or larger parts, of the following sentences; the first being taken from Dean Swift, and the second from an earlier writer, George Sandys: "I swore and subscribed to these articles with cheerfulness and content, although some of them were not so honorable as I could have wished; which proceeded wholly from the malice of Skyresh Bolgolam, the high admiral: whereupon my chains were immediately unlocked, and I was at full liberty.". "The parts I speak of are the most renowned countries and kingdoms: once the seats of most glorious and triumphant empires, the theatres of valor and heroical actions, the soils enriched with all earthly felicities; the places where Nature hath produced her wonderful works; where arts and sciences have been invented and perfected; where wisdom, virtue, policy, and civility have been planted, have flourished; ... where the Son of God honored the earth with his beautiful steps, wrought the works of our redemption, triumphed over death, and ascended into glory which countries, once so glorious and famous for their happy estate, are now, through vice and ingratitude, become the most deplored spectacles of extreme misery; the wild beasts of mankind having broken in upon them, and rooted out all civility, and the pride of a stern and barbarous tyrant possessing the thrones of ancient and just dominion." ORAL EXERCISE. Why are colons inserted between the members of these sentences? — Every one must, of course, think his own opinions right; for, if he thought them wrong, they would no longer be his opinions: but there is a wide difference between regarding ourselves as infallible, and being firmly convinced of the truth of our creed. He sunk to repose where the red heaths are blended; One dream of his childhood his fancy passed o'er: How many things are there which a man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man can scarce allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them; a man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate or beg; and a number of the like: but all these things are graceful in a friend's mouth, which are blushing in a man's own. When once our labor has begun, the comfort that enables us to endure it is the prospect of its end: for though, in every long work, there are some joyous intervals of self-applause, when the attention is recreated by unexpected facility, and the imagination soothed by incidental excellences not comprised in the first plan; yet the toil with which performance struggles after idea is so irksome and disgusting, and so frequent is the necessity of resting below that perfection which we imagined within our reach, that seldom any man obtains more from his endeavors than a painful conviction of his defects, and a continual resuscitation of desires which he feels himself unable to gratify. Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause EXERCISE TO BE WRITTEN. Insert both the semicolon and the colon wherever required in these sentences: — The republic may perish the wide arch of our ranged union may fall star by star its glories may expire stone after stone its columns and its Capitol may moulder and crumble all other names which adorn its annals may be forgotten but, as long as human hearts shall anywhere pant, or human tongues shall anywhere plead, for a true, rational, constitutional liberty, those hearts shall enshrine the memory, and those tongues shall prolong the fame, of George Washington. We are not merely to transmit the world as we receive it to teach, in a stationary repetition, the arts which we have received as the dove builds, this year, just such a nest as was built by the dove that went out from the ark, when the waters had abated but we are to apply the innumerable discoveries, inventions, and improvements, which have been successively made in the world, and never more than of late years, and combine and elaborate them into one grand system of condensed efficacy and quickened vitality, in forming and bringing forward our successors. - We may abound in meetings and movements enthusiastic gatherings in field or forest may kindle all minds with a common sentiment great revivals may bear away thousands on a torrent of sympathy but it is all in vain, if men do not retire from the tumult to the silent culture of every right disposition and the quiet practice of every duty in vain, unless they patiently engrave the commandments on inward tables, unless they hear a still voice in the soul, and retain a steady warmth there, when the noise has ceased and the flames have died away, as on the ancient mount of revelation. As water, whether it be the dew of heaven or the springs of the earth, doth scatter and lose itself in the ground, except it be collected into some receptacle, where it may by union comfort and sustain itself and, for that cause, the industry of man hath framed and made spring-heads, conduits, cisterns, and pools which men have accustomed likewise to beautify and adorn with accomplishments of magnificence and state, as well as of use and necessity so knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration or spring from human sense, would soon perish and vanish to oblivion, if it were not preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and places appointed, as universities, colleges, and schools, for the receipt and comforting the same. RULE III. Quotations, Remarks, &c., formally introduced. A colon should be placed before a quotation, a speech, a course of reasoning, or a specification of articles or subjects, when formally introduced. EXAMPLES. 1. The air was sweet and plaintive; and the words, literally translated, were these: "The winds roared and the rains fell, when the poor white man, faint and weary, came, and sat under our tree." 2. Let us take, in illustration, three poets, in an ascending scale of intellectual precedence: Keats, the representative of sensitiveness; Byron, of wilfulness; Shakspeare, of self-direction. REMARKS. a. By a formal introduction to a quotation, &c., is meant the use of any phrase, or mode of expression, drawing the attention of the reader to what is about to be said. b. Some writers put a dash after the colon, in order to distinguish more clearly the quotation from the introductory matter; as, "The words, literally translated, were these: 'The winds roared,'" &c. But this seems unnecessary, unless the words cited begin a new paragraph, which usually occurs when they consist of more than one sentence. c. When a quotation is short, and closely connected with the words preceding it, a comma between the parts is sufficient. See page 108. d. When quotations or remarks are introduced by one of the connective and explanatory words, as, namely, that is, a semicolon before and a comma after it are preferable to the colon; as, "I purchased the following articles; namely, tea, sugar, coffee, and raisins." The reason is, that the connection between the introductory remark and the example, or the articles enumerated, is rendered more intimate by the use of the explanatory word. See page 128. e. When the subjects or things specified consist of words or phrases in apposition with a preceding noun, or with that which is equivalent to it, without any formal introduction, a comma and a dash are used; as, "Energy and audacity of will characterize all ruling men, statesmen, generals, reformers, orators." -- ORAL EXERCISE. Say why colons are inserted before quotations, &c., in the following sentences : — All our conduct towards men should be influenced by this important precept: "Do unto others as ye would that others should do unto you." The discourse consisted of two parts: in the first was shown the necessity of exercise; in the second, the advantages that would result from it. Speaking of party zeal, Pope makes this judicious remark: "There never was any party, faction, sect, or cabal whatsoever, in which the most ignorant were not the most violent; for a bee is not a busier animal than a blockhead." Be our plain answer this: The throne we honor is the people's choice; the laws we reverence are our brave fathers' legacy; the faith we follow teaches us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind, and die with hope of bliss beyond the grave. The philosopher Malebranche makes this curious remark: "It is possible that some creatures may think half an hour as long as we do a thousand years, or look upon that space of duration which we call a minute as an hour, a week, a month, or a whole age." It is only necessary to make the experiment to find two things: one, how much useful knowledge can be acquired in a very little time; and the other, how much time can be spared, by good management, out of the busiest day. In a letter from Oxford to my brother Amos, his late pupil, for whom John Henderson always entertained the highest esteem, he thus expresses himself: "See that you govern your passions. What should us grieve us but our infirmities? what make us angry but our own faults?" The words with which Beattie concludes one of the most beautiful stanzas of his principal poem, express a sentiment with which it is impossible for us not to sympathize: "Oh! how canst thou renounce the boundless store Of charms that Nature to her votary yields? The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, And all that echoes to the song of even; Oh! how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven?" |