According to Remarks on pages 72–74, assign reasons for the punctuation of the adverbial or conjunctive words and phrases which occur in the following sentences, or for the omission of commas :

At present, the individual is often crushed by circumstances.
True, the rooms of the poor are not lined with works of art.
Let us further consider the arguments on this subject.

My high-blown pride at length broke under me.

How inconceivably thin and tender are the threads of a spider! us, in the first place, observe the inanimate world.

Let

That is, there is a true way of expressing truth.

Well, I call conversation the sweet interchange of thought.

I do not well know why I should think of it in any other respect. Ay, love the good and the beautiful. — Aye love the good, &c.

He first went to New York, and afterwards to Philadelphia.

Attend, first, to the literal sense; and, secondly, to the metaphorical.
Probably there are few who ever accomplish as much as they expected.
Few, probably, ever accomplish as much as they expected.
Why do you trust your character to be evolved by accident?

If I cannot perform my promise, why, I will regret having made it.
Hence all human laws are more or less imperfect.

Here also is the distinction between faith and mere assent.

I am inclined, however, to believe this to be a mistaken opinion.
However great Napoleon was as a general, he was not a good man.
Now, feudalism is the embodiment of Satanic pride.

Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
It is, then, a mark of wisdom to live virtuously and devoutly.
Have not you, too, gone about the earth like an evil genius?
We look at all things too exclusively from our own point of view.
If she trust the stars above, they can prove treacherous too.
True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in mere speech.
Professors Bentley and Porson were scholars indeed.
Our civilization, therefore, is not an unmixed good.
Therefore is our civilization not an unmixed good.

A certain degree of moral culture, therefore, must be presupposed.
A certain degree of moral culture must therefore be presupposed.
Besides this, it may be of the greatest advantage to you in business.
It may, besides, be of the greatest advantage to you in business.

They, notwithstanding, had much love to spare.

A man may be rich, notwithstanding pecuniary losses.

We shall perhaps leave the city to-morrow morning.

Yet, fair as thou art, thou shunnest to expose thyself to the public.

EXERCISE TO BE WRITTEN.

Insert commas only where required by Rule XI. and Remarks (pp. 72-74): —

Hence the organs of sense are probably in a state of the greatest sensibility in an early period of life. (Remarks e, c.)

Shakspeare was the most brilliant example unquestionably of a triumph over the defects of education. (Rule, and Remark a.) The children of our cottagers too appear to derive peculiar pleasure from the soft breath of spring. (Remark h 4.)

As yet science has hardly penetrated beneath the surface of nature. (Rule, and Remark a.)

Characters endowed with great excellences will unfortunately often stand in need of great allowances. (Remark g.)

Do we in a word reduce the whole of human duty to a bald and punctilious discharge of worldly business? (Rule.)

However much he was persecuted, he loved his persecutors not the less. (Remarks b, h 1.)

The happiness of the dead however is affected by none of these considerations. (Remark h 1.)

First men of uncommon moral endowments may be expected to be men of uncommon intellectual powers. (Rule, and Remark a.) If therefore you find that you have a hasty temper, watch it narrowly. (Remark i.)

The Greeks were great reasoners; and their language accordingly abounds in connectives. (Rule, and Remark a.)

This was the object to which the meeting first directed its attention. (Remark b.)

His prudent conduct may heal the difference; nay may prevent any misunderstanding in future. (Rule, and Remark a.)

Having now removed the objections made to our conduct, I shall take up very little more of your lordships' time. (Remarks b, h 2.) There was great scarcity of corn, and consequently dearth of all other victuals. (Rule, and Remarks a, d.)

Every thing that grows is a world probably of uncounted myriads of beings. (Rule, and Remark d.)

Sooner or later insulted virtue avenges itself on states, as well as on private men. (Rule.)

The author therefore commences his undertaking by an analysis of names. (Remark i.)

Without being rash on the one hand or fearful on the other we shall find all things working together for good. (Remark n.)

Christ stands immeasurably in advance of the moral attainments of the world. (Remark b.)

And hence perhaps it is that Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom. (Remark g.)

The lateral force of human action that is the influence of contemporaries, is great. (Rule, and Remark a.)

Meanwhile we do not believe in any infallible specific, in any sudden and unusual remedy. (Rule.)

But yesterday the word of Cæsar might have stood against the world. (Remark 1.)

Sometimes doubts and apprehensions will haunt the mind in its searchings for truth. (Rule.)

But on the other hand do not suppose that poverty is altogether a waste and howling wilderness. (Rule, and Remark c.)

There is undoubtedly very often more happiness in the hut than in the palace. (Rule, and Remark g.)

Nature has indeed given us a soil which yields bounteously to the hand of industry. But what are lands, &c. (Remark h 5.)

Society must of course receive beauty into its character and feeling. (Rule, and Remark a.)

Let us contemplate then this connection, which binds the prosperity of others to our own. (Remark h 3.)

Still a great and fruitful idea dimly pervades the eccentric speculations of Fourier. (Rule, and Remark b.)

We should look on character acquired here as the condition of happiness hereafter. (Remark c, and last of f.)

At present innumerable prejudices obstruct a complete extraction of the mental and moral wealth latent in society. (Rule, and Remark a.)

Did I not see other and holier influences than the sword working out the regeneration of our race, I should indeed despair. (Remarks c, h 5.)

Again perfection requires that each quality should be without debasing alloy. Lastly perfection requires that all the graces be expanded to an unlimited degree. (Rule, and Remark a.)

De Foe soon however relinquished every thing else for literature and politics; for which indeed his temper and talents adapted him much better than for business. (Remarks h 1, 5.)

Now how does capital punishment operate? Why it cuts off the offender from all the chance of reformation. (Remarks h 2 and b; Rule, and Remark a.)

RULE XII.

Phrases at the End of Sentences or Clauses.

§ I. When a phrase beginning with a preposition, an adverb, or a conjunction, relates to or modifies a preceding portion of the sentence, a comma is unnecessary, if the parts are closely connected in sense.

§ II. But the point must be inserted when its omission would occasion ambiguity, or when the phrase begins with a particle obstructing the connection which subsists between the different portions of the sentence.

EXAMPLES.

§ I.

1. For that agency he applied without a recommendation.

2. Cultivate your intellectual powers by habits of study and reflection. 3. The idea is very happily applied under one of its forms.

§ II.

1. He applied for that agency, without a recommendation.

2. Cultivate your intellectual powers, especially by habits of study, &c. 3. The idea is very happily applied, at least under one of its forms.

REMARKS.

a. In the first three examples, the phrases beginning with the prepositions "without," "by," "under," are closely connected with both portions of the sentence in which they severally occur, and therefore should not be preceded by a comma.

b. If, in the first example of the second class, the comma were omitted before the preposition "without," the sentence might be wrongly understood to mean, that a person applied for an agency, without its having any recommendation in its favor. Of the next example, if written without the comma before the adverb especially," the meaning might be, that, by habits of study and reflection, you should cultivate particularly your intellectual powers, that is, in preference to others; but this is not the sense. In both of these sentences, the insertion of the comma, as above, leads obviously to the true signification. In the last example, the sense is brought out more clearly by inserting a comma before the modifying words "at

least," because they belong rather to the phrase than to the whole clause, and obstruct the connection between "applied" and "under one of its forms."

c. When the use of a word qualifying the phrase interrupts but slightly the connection between two parts of a sentence, the comma is better omitted. Thus, though susceptible of being pointed, the following sentences, where the final phrases are severally modified by the words either, even, may be written without the comma: "A good man will be happy either in this world or the next."—"The knowledge of nature cannot be exhausted even by the wisest."

d. But, if a final phrase conveys an additional thought, or is preceded by another phrase, with which it does not readily unite, the comma should be inserted; as, "A strong idea of religion has generally prevailed, even among the most uncultivated savages." "The ode was frequently sung at his request, either in the church or at some occasional meeting of the choir."

e. The rule is applicable to a sentence ending with two phrases, each beginning with a particle, which may be taken either separately or as a compound phrase; the last or both referring to some portion of what precedes.

f. A phrase, at the end of a clause or sentence, of an antithetical character, is preceded by a comma; as, "Man's true destination is not perfection, but the unceasing perfecting of his nature."-See Rule V., p. 45.

g. No point is required before a final phrase beginning with but, in the sense of except; as, "None are poor but the mean in mind."

h. When a phrase begins with a verb in the infinitive mood, and its preposition signifies in order to, it should not be preceded by a comma; as, "We do not pray to God to instruct him." Unless where the omission of the point would too closely unite the latter portion of the clause with the phrase; as, "Our minds must go out into the infinite and immortal regions, to find sufficiency and satisfaction for the present hour."

i. If the words in order are expressed before the infinitive, the phrase is usually preceded by a comma; as, "We should be virtuous and devout, in order to refine and elevate our nature."

j. Final phrases, referring to time, measure, or distance, whether they begin with a preposition or are elliptical, should not be preceded by any point; as, "Byron was born on Jan. 22, 1788, and died April 19, 1824." "The mason built the wall a hundred feet high.” – "Some men can easily walk four miles an hour."