APPENDIX. I. USES OF CAPITAL LETTERS. THOUGH the subject of capital letters is but indirectly allied to punctuation, it may be suitable here to lay down a few principles, useful to all who are desirous of combining taste and propriety in their compositions, especially to persons likely to become in any way connected with the public press. It was formerly the custom to use capitals with greater frequency and less discrimination than it is at the present day; almost every noun, nay, in some cases almost every word of the slightest importance, having had its initial thus distinguished. The following is a moderate specimen of the style alluded to, taken from Clarendon's "History of the Rebellion," where he treats of Lord Strafford's death: "Thus Fell the greatest Subject in power, and little inferior to any in Fortune that was at that time in any of the three Kingdoms; Who could well remember the time when he led those People who then pursued him to his Grave. He was a man of great Parts, and extraordinary Endowments of Nature; not unadorned with some addition of Art and Learning, though that again was more improved and illustrated by the other." But, as this practice was to a great extent arbitrary, and did not possess the advantage of either ornament or utility, the use of capital letters is now very properly limited to the applications about to be mentioned. RULE I. The First Word of a Book, Tract, &c. The first word of every book, tract, essay, &c., and of their great divisions, — chapters, sections, paragraphs, and notes, must commence with a capital letter. REMARKS. a. Numerous exemplifications of the rule will be found in the present or any other work. b. Phrases or clauses, when separately numbered, begin each with a capital letter; as, "The reproach of barbarism may be incurred in three different ways: 1. By the use of words entirely obsolete; 2. By the use of words entirely new; or, 3. By new formations and compositions from simple and primitive words in present use." RULE II. The First Word after a Full Point. The first word after a period, and after a note of interrogation or exclamation when grammatically equivalent to a period, should begin with a capital; as, 1. Let the tone of your conversation be invariably benevolent. Differ without asperity; agree without dogmatism. Kind words cost no more than unkind ones. 2. What is it that keeps men in continual discontent and agitation? It is, that they cannot make realities correspond with their conceptions. 3. Fair, fair, shall be the flowers that spring over thy tomb, dear, gentle Elia! Sweet shall be the song-sweet as thine own- that shall lure the wanderer to the spot where thy urn receives the tears of the stranger. REMARKS. a. Some writers and printers always commence with a capital letter the word immediately following a colon; but this should take place only when required by other rules. b. When the period is a mark for an abbreviated word or phrase which does not end a sentence, the following word is commenced, not with a capital, but with a small letter; as, "Franklin had the degree of LL.D. conferred on him by the University of St. Andrew's, Scotland." Here it will be seen, that the initial of "conferred" is small. The word "Andrew's," indeed, though coming after an abbreviation, is put with a capital; but this, of course, arises from the fact that "St. Andrew's" is a prover name. c. When two or more sentences, of an exclamatory or interrogative kind, are closely connected in sense and construction, all of them, except the first, begin with a small letter; as, "How ugly a person appears, upon whose reputation some awkward aspersion hangs! and how suddenly his countenance clears up with his character!"—"What child is there, who, in a toyshop, does not prefer the gaudiest toy, if all other circumstances of attraction be the same? or, rather, to what child are not this very glare and glitter the chief circumstances of attraction? and in what island of savages have our circumnavigators found the barbarian to differ in this respect from the child?" In the passages just cited, the words "and," "or," which follow the note of exclamation and of interrogation, are begun with small letters, because these marks are equivalent, not to full points, but to semicolons. RULE III. Appellations of God and Christ. Names of the Deity and of Jesus Christ must commence with a capital letter; as, 1. Jehovah, Lord, God; Creator, Father, Preserver, Governor; the Eternal, the Almighty, the All-wise; the Supreme Being; the Holy Spirit. 2. The Messiah, the Anointed; the Son, the Saviour, the Redeemer; the Holy One; Prophet, Teacher, Master; Judge of the world. REMARKS. a. Some of these and similar words are begun, sometimes with a capital, and sometimes with a small letter, according to the sense in which they are taken. Thus, God, with a large initial, is the name of the Supreme Being; god, with a small character, an appellation used occasionally of men, angels, and false divinities; as, "The Lord is a great God above all gods." b. With initial capitals, Lord and King are applied to God and Christ; with a small and k, the same words denote men having Thus, in the Apocalypse, our Saviour is authority and power. |