which is not in the same case. Thus, in the first example, "author" corresponds to "Beattie's," —that is, to something belonging to Dr. Beattie, instead of Dr. Beattie himself.

I am aware that Lindley Murray countenances, to some extent, this inaccuracy, where he approves, as correct, such phrases as the following:

"These psalms are David's, the king, priest, and prophet of the Jewish people."

But his mistake arises from supposing that there is no alternative between the adoption of that form of phrase and the placing of the possessive case at the end of the sentence, thus:

"These psalms are David, the king, priest, and prophet of the Jewish people's."

Had that able grammarian examined the question with his usual discrimination, he would have seen that, in order to avoid the impropriety of the latter phrase, it is not necessary to resort to the still greater impropriety of making the possessive "David's" agree with the objective "king," as in the first example. He would have discovered, in the following, a better form than either, and one which is in every way unexceptionable :

"These psalms are those of David, the king, priest, and prophet of the Jewish people."

Butler has an amusing example of this sort of

parenthesis, written, no doubt, in derision of all

such forms of it :

"That proud dame for whom his soul

Was burnt in 's belly like a coal,

Used him so like a base rascallion,

That old Pyg (what d' y' call him) malion,
That cut his mistress out of stone,

Had not so hard a hearted one."

Sometimes the parenthesis includes more than the writer intended, or the sense will admit; so that, if what is included were omitted, the sense would be incomplete. An instance occurs in Latham's "English Language:"

"In Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub,' one (and more than one of the characters) speaks thus."

This parenthesis should have been formed as follows:

"In Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub,' one (and more than one) of the characters speaks thus." Another instance occurs in Darley's "Greek Drama :"

"In the 'Iphigenia,' Orestes, after having discovered his sister, discovers himself to her. She, indeed, is discovered by the latter; but Orestes by (verbal proofs :) and these are such as the poet chooses to make him produce.'

It is not easy to conceive for what purpose the parenthesis is here introduced: its presence is contrary to all the known rules of composition.

Dr. Whately, in his treatise on "Logic," containing one hundred and seven pages, has no

fewer than four hundred parentheses, threefourths of which seem to be introduced for no other purpose than to perplex the reader by violating the ordinary principles of punctuation. For a logician, this method of proceeding is, to say the least of it, very illogical. Doubtless, in a work of that character, the parenthesis is often unavoidable; but what, may we ask, can be the use of it in such sentences as the following ?

"The supposed argument may be reduced (without any alteration of its meaning) into the syllogistic form."

"An infinitive (though it often comes last in the sentence) is never the predicate."

"Generalisation (as has been remarked) implies abstraction." "The distribution of the predicate depends (not on the quantity, but) on the quality of the proposition."

"That premiss (wherever placed) is the major which contains the major term."

"If it were true, the consequent (which is granted to be false) would be true also."

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"In these two examples (as well as very many others) it is implied."

"Any two circumstances (not naturally connected) are more rarely to be met with."

"The induction (in this last sense) has been sufficiently ample."

"The truth, (such as it is) of such propositions, is necessary and eternal."

In these

sentences

sentences a comma would have satisfied all the requirements of punctuation;

while the more the character of the work imposed upon the writer the frequent introduction of the parenthesis, the more sparing he should have been of its use when it was wholly unnecessary.

As none but a careless or inaccurate writer will make use of a parenthesis where it may be avoided, so none but a writer of that character will omit it where the sense absolutely requires it. The following sentence is an example of such improper omission:

"Almost all these castles have their legends or romantic incidents, many of them connected with the Holy Wars, which are fondly dwelt on by the inhabitants."—ALISON. History of Europe.

Here the words in italics should form a parenthesis, in order to make the reader understand that what the inhabitants fondly dwelt upon were the legends or romantic incidents, and not the Holy Wars.

The method of punctuation which consists in "dashes" is quite a modern invention. It was first used in the sentimental poetry that came into vogue in the beginning of the nineteenth century; and thence it passed into the sentimental novels by which that poetry has been supplanted. It is a species of punctuation peculiarly suited to the delineation of the mockheroic; of that kind of intellectual abortion which we call "bathos," and which the French appro

priately style "la morgue de la littérature."* No author who values his reputation will consent to have his works disfigured by this affectation; and one is therefore surprised and shocked to see it adopted by writers of such ability as Sir Bulwer Lytton, Charles Lamb, John Wilson, and Thomas Carlyle. A single specimen will be sufficient to convince the reader of the absurdity of this system of punctuation; and that specimen I shall take from Sir B. Lytton. The writer is describing the causes of the prevalence of suicide in England, and he sums up in these words :

"The loss of fortune is the general cause of the voluntary loss of life. Wounded pride,-disappointment, the schemes of an existence laid in the dust,—the insulting pity of friends, -the humbled despair of all our dearest connexions, for whom perhaps we toiled and wrought,—the height from which we have fallen, the impossibility of regaining what we have lost,—the searching curiosity of the public,—the petty annoyance added to the great woe, all rushing upon a man's mind in the sudden convulsion and turbulence of its elements, what wonder that he welcomes the only escape from the abyss into which he has been hurled."-England and the English.

Here we have a double punctuation; the one ordinary and formed by the comma, such as

* The reader is requested not to confound "la morgue de la littérature 33 with "la morgue littéraire." The former means the sink of literature;" the latter "the surliness and pride of the man of letters."

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