326 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPEDIA. 



it. If you have space for the first syllable, let your hyphen be bold 

 Thus : 



It is sometimes a great con- 

 solation to me that, etc., etc. 



A word of one syllable must not be divided. Bring it bodily over to 

 the next line. 



Compound words must be divided into the simple words composing 

 them. Thus : War-whoop, not warw-hoop ; bread-stuff, not breadst-uff. 



GRAMMAR. 



Place your verbs correctly at all hazards. Never use the adverb for 

 the adjective, or the adjective for the adverb. Never take liberties with 

 the relative pronouns, or mingle in dire confusion tenses and moods. A 

 careful study of the admirable grammar in this cyclopedia will keep the 

 letter writer in the straight path. 



PUNCTUATION, 



In order to have the meaning of words readily understood, it becomes 

 necessary to divide those words into paragraphs, sentences and clauses* 

 by means of punctuation. As an instance of the absence of punctuation 

 and the farcical result, just read this : 



Lost on King Street on Thursday evening last an umbrella by an 

 elderly gentleman with a carved ivory head. 



Take the following rules and mark them well : 



Put a comma wherever you would make a trifling pause, were you 

 speaking ; as, " He came, he saw, he conquered." 



A semicolon makes a longer pause, and an incomplete sentence ; as, 

 " Julia is handsome ; Agnes is beautiful." The semicolon separates the 

 sentence more distinctly than the comma. 



The colon marks a sentence which is complete in itself, but is followed 

 by some additional remark ; as, " Shun vice : it will lead to ruin." The 

 colon is also used to precede a quotation, and point it off from the rest of 

 the sentence ; as, Shakespeare says : " Assume a virtue, if you have it 

 not." 



A period is used to denote that a sentence is complete ; as, " A bird in 

 the hand is worth two in the bush." 



The dash is used to denote a sudden pause, or abrupt change of sense 

 as, " I have loved her madly, wildly but why speak of her ? " 



