Public-domain ebook
English511 downloads on Project GutenbergDownload EPUB
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #20938.
The opening · free to read
I. A full stop is placed at the end of every sentence that is neither exclamatory nor interrogative.
A penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties which it imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are incurred. The sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties without limit. He was, therefore, competent to annul virtually a penal statute. It might seem that there could be no serious objection to his doing formally what he might do virtually.
How much should be put into a sentence is rather a matter of style than of punctuation. The tendency of modern literature is in favour of the short sentence. In the prose of Milton and of Jeremy Taylor, the full stop does not come to release the thought till all the circumstances have been grouped around it, and the necessary qualifications made. In Macaulay the circumstances and the qualifications are set out sentence by sentence. So the steps of reasoning in the example which we have given are stated with that distinct pause between each of them which the reader would make if he thought them out for himself. They might be welded together thus:
Seeing that a penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties which it imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are incurred, and seeing that the sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties without limit, it follows that he was competent to annul virtually a penal statute; and it might seem that there could be no serious objection to his doing formally what he might do virtually.
Both forms are correct in point of punctuation. Which is the better form is a question of style. Take another example:
The sides of the mountain were covered with trees; the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks; and every mouth dropped fruits upon the ground.
There is here an advantage in putting these four statements together, instead of making four separate sentences. We can more easily combine the details, and so form a single picture--a picture of fertility.
II. As a rule the full stop is not to be inserted till the sentence be grammatically complete. But some parts of the sentence necessary to make it grammatically complete may be left for the reader to supply.
It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him. A man's or a nation of men's. By religion I do not mean here the church-creed which he professes, the articles of faith which he will sign and, in words or otherwise, assert. Not this wholly, in many cases not this at all.
III. When a sentence is purposely left unfinished, the dash takes the place of the full stop. (See Rule XL.)
"Excuse me," said I, "but I am a sort of collector." "Not Income-tax?" cried His Majesty, hastily removing his pipe from his lips.
IV. A full stop is placed after most abbreviations, after initial letters, and after ordinal numbers in Roman characters.
Gen. i. 20; two lbs.; A.D. 1883; 3 p.m.; &c., and etc.; M.D., J. S. Mill; William III., King of England; MS., LL.D. (not M.S. and L.L.D.).
Note that the use of the full stop in these cases does not prevent another point from being used immediately after it. But if they occur at the end of a sentence, another full stop is not added; or, more correctly, it may be said that Rule IV. does not apply at the end of a sentence.
"Mr," "Messrs," "Dr"--abbreviations which retain the last letter of the whole word--are written without a point.
V. The comma indicates a short pause in a sentence. It is used when we wish to separate words that stand together, and at the same time to stop as little as possible the flow of the sentence.
When the earl reached his own province, he found that preparations had been made to repel him.
Though it is difficult, or almost impossible, to reclaim a savage, bred from his youth to war and the chase, to the restraints and the duties of civilized life, nothing is more easy or common than to find men who have been educated in all the habits and comforts of improved society, willing to exchange them for the wild labours of the hunter and the fisher.
VI. Where there is no danger of obscurity, the subject must not be separated from the predicate by any point.
The eminence of your station gave you a commanding prospect of your duty.
VII. When the subject is long, a comma may be placed after it.
To say that he endured without a murmur the misfortune that now came upon him, is to say only what his previous life would have led us to expect.
In every sentence the subject, whether expressed in one word or in several words, must be grasped as a whole; and, when the subject is long, one is often assisted in doing this by having a point to mark its termination. The eye at once observes the separating line. Note the corresponding pause in the reading of such sentences.
VIII. When the subject consists of several parts, e.g., of several nouns, a comma is placed after the last part.
A few daring jests, a brawl, and a fatal stab, make up the life of Marlowe.
Time, money, and friends, were needed to carry on the work.
This rule will appear reasonable if we consider an apparent exception to it. When the last noun sums up all the others, or marks the highest point of a climax, no comma is placed after it.
Freedom, honour, religion was at stake.
If "religion" be regarded as marking the highest point of a climax, the predicate is read with "religion," and with it alone. When so great a thing as religion is said to be at stake, everything else is dropped out of sight, or is held to be included. But write the three names as if they were of equal importance; the comma should then be inserted:
Freedom, honour, and religion, were at stake.
But it is not necessary to use a point in such a sentence as this: "Time and tide wait for no man." For we see without the aid of a point that the predicate is to be read with the two nouns equally.
The principle might be applied also in cases like the following, though few writers carry it so far:
It was the act of a high-spirited, generous, just nation.
It was the act of a high-spirited, generous, and just, nation.
IX. Dependent clauses are generally separated from the rest of the sentence in which they occur. The usual point is the comma.
Be his motives what they may, he must soon disperse his followers.
This relation of your army to the crown will, if I am not greatly mistaken, become a serious dilemma in your politics.
Of course, this rule must be qualified by the rules for the stronger points, especially by those for the semicolon and the colon. It is often necessary to separate the clause from the rest of the sentence by a strong point.
EXCEPTIONS.--(I) No point is needed if either the dependent clause or the principal clause be short.
He would be shocked if he were to know the truth.
The book keeps going
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
New illustrated classics
Once or twice a month: the latest books to get full character casts, scene art, and free comic editions. No account needed.
