REMARK. In the leading articles of newspapers, when an extract is embodied in the text, and sometimes in other works, when particular attention would be drawn to a passage quoted, the inverted commas are placed at the beginning of each line; as, "Slavery must fall, because it stands in direct "hostility to all the grand movements, principles, and reforms of our age;"because it stands in the way of an advancing world. One great idea stands "out amidst the discoveries and improvements of modern times. It is, that "man is not to exercise arbitrary, irresponsible power over man."— But, except in the more transient class of publications, this mode of exhibiting extracts is now seldom used.

EXERCISES.

Write the following passages, and insert the marks of quotation before and after the words or sentences quoted :

D'Alembert congratulated a young man very coldly, who brought him the solution of a problem. I have done this to have a seat in the academy, said the young man.-Sir, answered D'Alembert, with such motives you will never earn one. Science must be loved for its own sake, and not for the advantage to be derived. No other principle will enable a man to make true progress.

There is a sympathy which warms us in the presence of the young. He must have a narrow heart, who does not feel it. Any man, it has been well said, who has a proneness to see a beauty and fitness in all God's works, may find daily food for his mind even in an infant. This sympathy is generally felt. It is manifested in an interest which is almost universal. It appeals to our gentler nature; and that nature answers in accents of love.

- Well, said his

He, indeed, it may always safely be presumed, knows least of the mind, who thinks that he knows its substance best. What is the soul? was a question once put to Marivaux. I know nothing of it, he answered, but that it is spiritual and immortal. friend, let us ask Fontenelle, and he will tell us what it is. —No! cried Marivaux: ask anybody but Fontenelle; for he has too much good sense to know any more about it than we do.

When you extend your view beyond the system in which we move, and penetrate into that field in which ten thousand other systems revolve around ten thousand other suns in ceaseless harmony, oh! rest not in a cold recognition of the facts, but take one single step, and say, These are thy wondrous works: thyself how wondrous! And rest not here, but take another step, and recognise this Being as the witness of all your conduct, as the witness even of the

moral condition of the heart.

The softer accents should receive cultivation, not as a matter of mere artifice, but as a true medium of refined feeling. If your concern for pleasing others arise from innate benevolence, says the Spectator, it never fails of success; if from mere vanity, its disappointment is no less certain.

Socrates, the Greek philosopher, was remarkable for the power he had acquired of controlling his disposition to anger, which was naturally great. He desired his friends to apprise him when they saw him ready to fall into a passion. At the first hint of the kind from them, he softened his tone, and was silent. Finding himself in great emotion against a slave, I would beat you, says he, if I were not angry. Having received a box on the ear, he contented himself by only saying, with a smile, It is a misfortune not to know when to put on a helmet. Socrates, meeting a gentleman of rank in the street, saluted him; but the gentleman took no notice of it. His friends in company, observing what passed, told the philosopher, that they were so exasperated at the man's incivility, that they had a good mind to resent it. But he very calmly made answer, If you meet any person on the road in a worse habit of body than yourself, would you think that you had reason to be enraged at him on that account? If not, pray, then, what greater reason can you have for being incensed at a man of worse habit of mind than any of yourselves? But, without going out of his house, he found enough to exercise his patience in all its extent. Xantippe, his wife, put it to the severest test, by her captious, passionate, violent disposition. Never was a woman of so furious and fantastical a spirit, and so bad a temper. There was no kind of abuse or injurious treatment which he had not to experience from her. She was once so transported with rage against him, that she tore off his cloak in the open street; whereupon his friends told him, that such treatment was insufferable, and that he ought to give her a severe drubbing for it. Yes, a fine piece of sport, indeed! says he: while she and I were buffeting one another, you in your turns, suppose, would animate us on to the combat: while one cried out, Well done, Socrates, another would say, Well hit, Xantippe. At another time, having vented all the reproaches her fury could suggest, he went out and sat before the door. His calm and unconcerned behaviour did but irritate her so much the more; and, in the excess of her rage, she ran up stairs, and emptied a dish of foul water upon his head; at which he only laughed, and said that so much thunder must needs produce a shower.

106

OTHER MARKS USED IN WRITING AND PRINTING.

In addition to the sentential pauses and marks, explained in the preceding pages, there are other characters, occasionally used both in manuscript and in printed works, and deserving of some consideration.

I. CROTCHETS or BRACKETS [ ] are employed for the same purpose nearly as the marks of parenthesis; but they are usually confined to words, phrases, or sentences, inserted in or appended to a quotation, and not belonging to it; as, "The captain had several men died [who died] in his ship."- -"To speak imperiously to servants, or to treat them with unnecessary severity, betray [a grammarian would say, betrays] an unchristian spirit.”-"I know the banker I deal with, or the physician I usually call in, ['There is no need,' cried Dr. Slop (waking), 'to call in any physician in this case.'] to be neither of them men of much religion."

REMARK 1. From these examples, it will be seen, that brackets are chiefly intended to give an explanation, to rectify a mistake, or to supply an omission; the word, phrase, or sentence, being thus introduced, not by the speaker or the author of the quotation, but by the transcriber. But these marks are also sometimes used in the paging of books, to enclose figures when standing alone; in dictionaries and in poetry, to separate those words which, for the saving of room, are put into lines to which they do not belong; and in psalms and hymns, to include such verses as may be omitted by a congregation. Brackets, however, are now but seldom used for any other purposes than those previously mentioned.

REMARK 2. Marks of parenthesis and the bracket are often used indiscriminately; but the following rule (from Parker's Exercises in Rhetorical Reading, p. 23) will aid the pupil in distinguishing the difference as respects their application:-"Crotchets [the writer means, Marks of Parenthesis] are used to enclose a sentence, or part of a sentence, which is inserted between the parts of another sentence: Brackets are generally used to separate two subjects, or to enclose an explanation, note, or observation, standing by itself."

REMARK 3.- -The grammatical punctuation of the words or sentences enclosed by brackets, and of the context, when they require such pointing, should be the same as that adopted in reference to the parenthesis, and to the clauses between which it is inserted. See page 69. Dashes are sometimes used before and after a bracket, to lead the eye from the preceding portion of the sentence to the latter. They may with propriety be introduced in such examples as the following, which has been already given without the dashes:-"I know the banker I deal with, or the physician I usually call in,["There is no need,' cried Dr. Slop (waking), 'to call in any physician in this case.'] - to be neither of them men of much religion."

II. A COMMA INVERTED [] is used instead of a very small c, in many of the proper names beginning with Mac; as, M'Donald, the abbreviation of Macdonald. The same mark is sometimes annexed to the letter O in proper names; as, O'Neil: but an apostrophe is more frequently used, and is preferable; as, O'Neil.

III. TWO COMMAS [,,] are occasionally used to indicate that something is understood which was expressed in the line above; as, Classical Pupils 15s. Od. per quarter, or 16d. per week. English 10s. 6d. per do. or lud. per

All orders

IV. An INDEX, or HAND [], points out a passage which the writer is anxious should not be overlooked; as, promptly attended to."

V. THREE STARS, placed in this form [***], or N. B. the initials of nota bene," mark well," are sometimes used for the same purpose as the index. These characters are employed chiefly in cards, handbills, and advertisements; seldom in books.

VI. A CARET [A] is inserted where a letter or word was accidentally omitted in writing, but has afterwards been placed over the line;

as,

p

are

Disapointments and trials often blessings in disguise.

A

VII. A BRACE [

A

] is used to connect a number of words with one common term, and to bind together a triplet, or three lines of poetry having the same rhyme; as,

The brace is now seldom used in verse, but frequently in lists of articles, and in tabular matter, where the object is to save room, or to avoid repetition.

VIII. MARKS OF ELLIPSIS are formed by means of a long dash or of a succession of points or stars [ *****], of

various lengths; and are used to indicate the omission of letters in a word, of words in a sentence, or of sentences in a paragraph; as,

1. "Pt is not uniformly distinguished for dignity, wisdom, patriotism, or philanthropy."

2. "Hast thou

But how shall I ask a question which must

bring tears into so many eyes?"

3. "If the great have no other glory than that of their ancestors; if their titles are their only virtues,

........

them, even in the estimation of the world."

their birth dishonours

* * *

** * *

4. "Some persons believe, that there are no longer any duties to be fulfilled beyond the tomb; and there are but few who know how to be friends to the dead. *** The name of our friends, their glory, their family, have still claims on our affection, which it would be guilt not to feel. They should live still in our heart, by the emotions which subsist there; in our memory, by our frequent remembrance of them; in our voice, by our eulogiums; in our conduct, by our imitation of their virtues."

REMARK. -In the first example, "P- -t" is substituted for Parliament; in the second, the question begun is left unfinished; in the third, a single clause is omitted; and in the fourth, several sentences are left out by the transcriber. See page 60, Rule vi.; and page 82, Rule viii.

IX. ACCENTS.-There are three marks, termed accents, placed over the vowels; namely, the Acute ['], as in fáncy; the Grave ['], as in favour; and the Circumflex [ ], as in fâll. The acute accent commonly represents a sharp, the grave a depressed, and the circumflex a broad sound. But these characters are also used to denote the inflections of the voice, according to the system invented by Walker. The circumflex is employed in Latin to mark the ablative case of the first declension, and the genitive of the fourth; as well as some contractions, both in that language and in the French.

X. There are other three marks, indicating the pronunciation, which are sometimes classed among the accents; namely, the LONG [ ̄ ], as in rōsy; the BREVE, or SHORT [], as in folly; and the DIERESIS [], as in aërial. The diæresis is usually placed over the latter of two vowels, and denotes that they are to be pronounced separately.