356 EEPOKT — 1891. 



editorial articles, a second for the news columns, and a third 

 for the advertisements. The distinction between capital and 

 small letters, then, is arbitrary, of no phonetic value, and of 

 very uncertain value in any other respect. Therefore, of our 

 forty-nine alphabetic characters, twenty-three must be regarded 

 as belonging to the category of arbitrary signs, and placed in 

 the third of the three classes enumerated at the beginning of 

 this paper. 



We have only to compare any printed book of the present 

 day with one a century old, to see how the tendency is towards 

 the restriction of use of these signs. The proper name in 

 capitals in a Times leader ; the italicising of the name of a 

 ship — are survivals from a bygone period of literature. Italics 

 have been characterized as distinctively feminine. It would 

 be more correct to say that they belong to the infantile period. 

 The fact is that the whole system of signs of the third cate- 

 gory is in the nature of stage-directions incorporated with the 

 text, and is to some extent a reflection upon the intelligence of 

 the reader. If Punch to-day printed his jests in the same 

 manner as those of Peter Pindar, — or even, to fix a later date, 

 those of Thomas Hood, — with every play upon words italicised, 

 and a plentiful supply of exclamation-signs to mark off the 

 points, no one would have patience with him. Good writers 

 now use italics very sparingly. The unnecessary brackets, 

 dashes, asterisks, and other elliptical marks so much in vogue 

 a hundred years ago no longer disfigure the text ; and in the 

 best works small capitals are rarely to be found, and the use of 

 capitals is reduced to a minimum. Unfortunately in this latter 

 case it is the standard form of letter that is gradually being 

 superseded. It is time to raise the question whether it is 

 right that the intelligent reader should have his own language 

 partially parsed for him as he reads, and whether he should 

 be asked to submit longer to have his ordinary reading 

 decorated or disfigured (like certain modern hymnals) with 

 expression - marks : especially when the system adopted is 

 extremely inaccurate and inefficient, — perhaps the worst and 

 most cumbrous system of arbitrary signs that has yet been 

 devised. 



Of the second section of signs— those of punctuation — I 

 have little to say. A radical reformer in the United States 

 has been advocating their entire disuse ; but I do not think he 

 has made out his case. Our experience with unpunctuated 

 Acts of Parliament in this colony some years ago is alone 

 sufficient to condemn such a proposal. If we could revert to 

 an ancient Greek system, and display our lines as on monu- 

 ments and title-pages, points would be quite superfluous ; but 

 such is not the case. It is curious, however, to note how the 

 colon is passing into the region of superannuated signs. It is 



