Hieroglyphical Fragments. 97 



ing to its sense, as in German we have hienge from hangen, and 

 hdngte from hangen, to execute. For sling and slungy we have 

 authority in schlingen, gesc/dungen, for spring and sprung in 

 springen and gesprungen; for swollen, swam or swum, and 

 swung, in geschwollen, geschwommen, and geschwungen. And 

 it is quite clear from these examples that '^ the bad practice 

 of abbreviating, or shortening," has nothing to do with the 

 matter. 



In Letter XIV we have a very distinct examination of a rule 

 in punctuation which has been commonly adopted by good 

 printers, without so distinct a description of its foundation. 

 *' Commas are made use of, when phrases, that is to say * por- 

 tions' of words, are * throwed^' into a sentence, and which are 

 not absolutely necessary to assist in its grammatical construc- 

 tion." In a word, two commas are very nearly equivalent to 

 the old fashioned parenthesis. Again, *' the apostrophe ought to 

 be called the mark not of ehsion, but of laziness and vulgarity;'^ 

 a remark made in truly classical taste, which might have been 

 extended with perfect propriety to the subject of the next para- 

 praph, the Hyphen, the insertion of which is, to make it uncer-^ 

 tain whether the words united by it are one word or two. He 

 goes on admirably in the next page. ^' Notes, like parentheses, 

 are interrupters, and much more troublesome interrupters, 

 because they generally tell a much longer story. The em- 

 ploying of them arises, in almost all cases, from confusion in 

 the mind of the writer. He finds the matter too much for him. 

 He has not the talent to work it all up into one lucid whole ; 



and, therefore, he puts part of it into Notes" " Instead of 



the word and, you often see people put Sf. For what reason I 

 should like to know. But to this Sf is sometimes added a c ; 

 thus, 8fc. And is, in Latin, et, and c is the first letter of the 

 Latin word caetera, which means the like, or so on. This 

 abbreviation of a foreign word is a most convenient thing for 

 such writers as have too much indolence or too httle sense to 

 say fully and clearly what they ought to say. If you mean to 

 say and the like, or, and so on, why not say it ? . . . The abbrevi- 

 ation is very frequently made use of without the writer having 

 any idea of its import." But it is surely a mischievous maxim, 

 never to " think of mending what you write. Let it go. No 



JULY— OCT. 1827. H 



