The Grammar of English Grammars, Goold Brown [ebook reader for manga txt] 📗
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"Why labours reason? instinct were as well;
Instinct far better; what can choose, can err."
—Brit. Poets, Vol. viii.
"The sentence may run thus; 'He is related to the same person, and is governed by him.'"—Hart's Gram.
[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the semicolon is here inserted, in an unusual manner, before a quotation not closely dependent. But, according to Rule 3d for the Colon, "A quotation introduced without a close dependence on a verb or a conjunction, is generally preceded by the colon." Therefore, the colon should be here preferred.]
"Always remember this ancient proverb, 'Know thyself.'"—Hallock's Gram. "Consider this sentence. The boy runs swiftly."—Frazee's Gram., Stereotype Ed. 1st Ed. "The comparative is used thus; 'Greece was more polished than any other nation of antiquity.' The same idea is expressed by the superlative when the word other is left out. Thus, 'Greece was the most polished nation of antiquity'"—Bullions, E. Gram. see Lennie's Gram. "Burke, in his speech on the Carnatic war, makes the following allusion to the well known fable of Cadmus's sowing dragon's teeth;—'Every day you are fatigued and disgusted with this cant, the Carnatic is a country that will soon recover, and become instantly as prosperous as ever. They think they are talking to innocents, who believe that by the sowing of dragon's teeth, men may come up ready grown and ready made.'"—Hiley's Gram., see also Hart's.
"For sects he car'd not, 'they are not of us,
Nor need we, brethren, their concerns discuss.'"—Crabbe.
"Habit with him was all the test of truth,
'It must be right: I've done it from my youth.'
Questions he answered in as brief a way,
'It must be wrong—it was of yesterday.'"—Id., Borough.
"This would seem to say, 'I doubt nothing save one thing, namely, that he will fulfil his promise;' whereas, that is the very thing not doubted."—Bullions, E. Gram.. "The common use of language requires that a distinction be made between morals and manners, the former depend upon internal dispositions, the latter on outward and visible accomplishments."—Beattie's Moral Science. "Though I detest war in each particular fibre of my heart yet I honor the Heroes among our fathers who fought with bloody hand: Peacemakers in a savage way they were faithful to their light; the most inspired can be no more, and we, with greater light, do, it may be, far less."—Parker's Idea of a Church. "The Article the, like a, must have a substantive joined with it, whereas that, like one, may have it understood; thus, speaking of books, I may select one, and say, 'give me that;' but not, 'give me the;' 'give me one;' but not 'give me a.'"—Bullions's E. Gram.. "The Present tense has three distinct forms—the simple; as, I read; the emphatic; as, I do read; and the progressive; as, I am reading'."—Ib.. "The tenses in English are usually reckoned six. The Present, the Imperfect, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the Future, and the Future Perfect."—Ib.. "There are three participles, the Present or Active, the Perfect or Passive, and the Compound Perfect; as, loving, loved, having loved."—L. Murray's Gram., 2d Edition; Alger's; Fisk's; Bacon's. "The Participles are three, the Present, the Perfect, and the Compound Perfect; as, loving, loved, having loved."—Hart's Gram.. "Will is conjugated regularly, when it is a principal verb, as, present, I will, past, I willed, &c."—Frazee's Gram., Ster. Ed.; Old Ed. "And both sounds of x are compound, one is that of gz, and the other, that of ks"—Ib., Ster. Ed. "The man is happy: he is benevolent: he is useful."—Cooper's Murray; Pl. and Pract. Gr. "The Pronoun stands instead of the noun; as, The man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful.'"—L. Murray's Gram., 2d Ed. "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word: as, 'The man is happy,' 'he is benevolent,' 'he is useful.'"—Ib.. "A pronoun is a word, used in the room of a noun, or as a substitute for one or more words, as: the man is happy; he is benevolent; he is useful."—Cooper's Pl. and Pr. Gram., his Abridg. of Mur. "A common noun is the name of a sort, kind, or class of beings, or things, as: animal; tree; insect; fish; fowl"—Cooper's Pl. and Pr. Gram. "Nouns have three persons: the first; the second; and the third."—Ib.
"(Eve) so saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit; she pluck'd, she ate
Earth felt the wound: and nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo,
That all was lost."—Cooper's Pl. and Pr. Gram.
The Period, or Full Stop, is used to mark an entire and independent sentence, whether simple or compound.
RULE I.—DISTINCT SENTENCES.When a sentence, whether long or short, is complete in respect to sense, and independent in respect to construction, it should be marked with the period: as, "Every deviation from truth is criminal. Abhor a falsehood. Let your words be ingenuous. Sincerity possesses the most powerful charm."—"The force of a true individual is felt through every clause and part of a right book; the commas and dashes are alive with it."—R. W. Emerson.
"By frequent trying, TROY was won.
All things, by trying, may be done."—Lloyd, p. 184.
The period is often employed between two sentences which have a general connexion, expressed by a personal pronoun, a conjunction, or a conjunctive adverb: as, "The selfish man languishes in his narrow circle of pleasures. They are confined to what affects his own interests. He is obliged to repeat the same gratifications, till they become insipid. But the man of virtuous sensibility moves in a wider sphere of felicity."—Blair.
"And whether we shall meet again, I know not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take."—Shak., J. C.
RULE III.—ABBREVIATIONS.The period is generally used after abbreviations, and very often to the exclusion of other points; but, as in this case it is not a constant sign of pause, other points may properly follow it, if the words written in full would demand them: as, A. D. for Anno Domini;—Pro tem. for pro tempore;—Ult. for ultimo;—i.e. for id est, that is;—Add., Spect, No. 285; i.e., Addison, in the Spectator, Number 285th.
"Consult the statute; 'quart.' I think, it is,
'Edwardi sext.,' or 'prim. et quint. Eliz.'"—Pope, p. 399.
OBS. 1.—It seems to be commonly supposed, whether correctly or not, that short sentences which are in themselves distinct, and which in their stated use must be separated by the period, may sometimes be rehearsed as examples, in so close succession as not to require this point: as, "But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."—SCOTT, ALGER, AND OTHERS: Matt., xix, 17, 18, 19. "The following sentences exemplify the possessive pronouns:—'My lesson is finished; Thy books are defaced; He loves his studies; She performs her duty; We own our faults; Your situation is distressing; I admire their virtues.'"—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 55. What mode of pointing is best adapted to examples like these, is made a very difficult question by the great diversity of practice in such cases. The semicolon, with guillemets, or the semicolon and a dash, with the quotation marks, may sometimes be sufficient; but I see no good reason why the period should not in general be preferred to the comma, the semicolon, or the colon, where full and distinct sentences are thus recited. The foregoing passage of Scripture I have examined in five different languages, ten different translations, and seventeen different editions which happened to be at hand. In these it is found pointed in twelve different ways. In Leusden's, Griesbach's, and Aitton's Greek, it has nine colons; in Leusden's Latin from Montanus, eight; in the common French version, six; in the old Dutch, five; in our Bibles, usually one, but not always. In some books, these commandments are mostly or wholly divided by periods; in others, by colons; in others, by semicolons; in others, as above, by commas. The first four are negative, or prohibitory; the other two, positive, or mandatory. Hence some make a greater pause after the fourth, than elsewhere between any two. This greater pause is variously marked by the semicolon, the colon, or the period; and the others, at the same time, as variously, by the comma, the semicolon, or the colon. Dr. Campbell, in his Four Gospels, renders and points the latter part of this passage thus: "Jesus answered, 'Thou shalt not commit murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not give false testimony. Honour thy father and mother; and love thy neighbour as thyself." But the corresponding passage in Luke, xviii 20, he exhibits thus: "Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not give false testimony; honour thy father and thy mother." This is here given as present advice, referring to the commandments, but not actually quoting them; and, in this view of the matter, semicolons, not followed by capitals may be right. See the common reading under Rule XIV for Capitals, on page 166.
OBS. 2.—Letters written for numbers, after the manner of the Romans, though read as words, are never words in themselves; nor are they, except perhaps in one or two instances, abbreviations of words. C, a hundred, comes probably from Centum; and M, a thousand, is the first letter of Mille; but the others, I, V, X, L, D, and the various combinations of them all, are direct numerical signs, as are the Arabic figures. Hence it is not really necessary that the period should be set after them, except at the end of a sentence, or where it is suitable as a sign of pause. It is, however, and always has been, a prevalent custom, to mark numbers of this kind with a period, as if they were abbreviations; as, "While pope Sixtus V. who succeeded Gregory XIII. fulminated the thunder of the church against the king of Navarre."—Smollet's Eng., iii, 82. The period is here inserted where the reading requires only the comma; and, in my opinion, the latter point should have been preferred. Sometimes, of late, we find other points set after this period; as, "Otho II., surnamed the Bloody, was son and successor of Otho I.; he died in 983."—Univ. Biog. Dict. This may be an improvement on the former practice, but double points are not generally used, even where they are proper; and, if the period is not indispensable, a simple change of the point would perhaps sooner gain the sanction of general usage.
OBS. 3.—Some writers, judging the period to be wrong or needless in such cases, omit it, and insert only such points as the reading requires; as, "For want of doing this, Judge Blackstone has, in Book IV, Chap. 17, committed some most ludicrous errors."—Cobbett's Gram., Let. XIX, ¶ 251. To insert points needlessly, is as bad a fault as to omit them when they are requisite. In Wm. Day's "Punctuation Reduced to a System," (London, 1847,) we have the following obscure and questionable RULE: "Besides denoting a grammatical pause, the full point is used to mark contractions, and is requisite after every abbreviated word, as well as after numeral letters."—Page 102. This seems to suggest that both a pause and a contraction may be denoted by the same point. But what are properly called "contractions," are marked not by the period, but
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