GRAMMAR. 
778 
the voice neGefTary to good reading, which the prefect 
points can never denote; but thele modulations muft be 
intircly left to the difcretion and feeling of the reader. 
Thus much for the comma. Thofe, who are acquaint¬ 
ed with the proper ufe of this point, will feldom be at 
a lofs in the others. 
XVI. A feini-colon may be ufed, in dividing fen- 
tences, where the grammatical conftrudtion is not fully 
complete.— Ex. 
Th6re entertain him all the faints above, 
In foleinn troops and fweet focieties 
Who ling; and, linging, in their glory move.” 
Tlie above rule, it Ihould be obferved, is given chiefly 
as a mark of diftinction between the ufe of the femi- 
colon and colon, as the colon (hould not be ufed but 
where the grammatical conftrudtion is quite complete. 
In juftice to the author of the Elements of Punctuation, 
from whom we have borrowed thefe rules, we mention 
this, becaufe the Critical Review, vol. ii. for 1786, p.73. 
taking the rule in itfelf, without the difcriminating prin- 
ciple exprelled by the author, treated the work very 
unhandlomely. See Steel’s Elements of Punftuation, 
sd. edit. p. xiv. 
XVII. Semi-colons aptly divide fentences that have 
one common nominative cafe, when any of them con- 
tain two or three claufes; for the femi-colon fliews the 
completion of each fentence ; and a diftindtion is tliere- 
by preferved, which a continuance of commas would 
deftroy.— Ex. 
- -“ Indullry approach’d, 
And rous’d him from his miferable Iloth j 
His faculties unfolded ; pointed out 
Where lavilh nature the diredting hand 
Of art demanded ; lliew’d him liovv to raife 
His feeble force by the mechanic powers, 
To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth, 
On wiiat to turn the piercing rage of fire, 
On what the torrent of the gather’d blalt; 
Gave the tall ancient foreft to his axe ; 
Taught him to chip the wood and he\y the ftone, 
Till, by degrees, the finilh’d fabric rofe; 
Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur. 
And wrapt them in the woolly veftment warm, 
Or bright in glofiy filk and flowing lawn.” 
The infinitive moods in the jth, 7th, and 8th, lines of 
this example, viz. to raife, to dig, to turn, are dependent 
upon the verb Jhew'd ; and therefore, with their adjuncts, 
form but one fentence, feparaied at the end by a femi- 
colon. Whatever point a fentence or member of a fen¬ 
tence may require at the end of it, points of interior 
power Ihould be ufed in the middle, 
XVIII. A colon is admiffible only where the gram¬ 
matical confiriuition is quite perfedt.— Ex. 
“ Then, too, the pillar’d dome magnific heav’d 
Its ample roofj and Luxury, within, . 
Pour’d out her glittering ftores: the canvas fmooth, 
With glowing life protuberant, to the view 
Embodied rofe; the ftatue feem’d to breathe.” 
XIX. Parenthetical marks demand every point which 
the fenfe would require if the parenthefis were omitted, 
except where the parenthefis is interrogative or excla¬ 
matory.— Ex. 
- ---“ As armies, at the call 
Of trumpet, (for of armies thou haft heard,) 
Troop to their ftandard, &c,” Milton, 
■ -“Therefore, th’omnipotent 
Eternal Father (for where is not he 
Prefent ?) thus to his Son audibly fpake,” Milton, 
—- “They, not obeying, 
Incurr’d (what could they lefs?) the penalty; 
Andj manifold in fin, deferv’d to fall.” Miltm, 
To produce rules fiifficient fof every purpofe of com- 
pofition, in all the poflible variations of phrafe and con- 
ftruftion, would be tedious, difficult, and inelfedhial ; 
their number would deftroy their utility. A nice ac¬ 
quaintance with pun6tiiation is fcarcely attainable by 
rules, as a knowledge of fyntax may be acquired ; but 
it muff: be procured by a kind of internal conviction, 
that the rules of grammar are never to be violated. 
What is meant by never violating the rules of grammar, 
is, that a proper connexion be always preferved, in com¬ 
pound fentences, between the nominative cafe, however 
complex, and its verb ; the verb and its objective cafe, 
however complex ; the relative and its antecedent. And 
this is to be chiefly attained by a liberal and proper ufe 
of the comma. 
Let us take an inftance from the work before us, vol. 
iv. p. 835. “ Columna compiled a chronicle in thirty-fix 
books, and wrote feveral hiftorical tradfs in relation to 
England.” Was the chronicle relative to England ? If 
fo, there Ihould be a comma after the word traEls •, if 
not, the fentence is rightly pointed, but then we do not 
know what the chronicle was about. 
The following line from Lewis’s Statius is rendered 
almoft unintelligible by wrong pun(Sl;uation : “ Deep, 
deep within Death, his half-brother lies.” From this 
punctuation it would appear, that the half-brother of 
Death, or of fome other perfon, had got deep within 
Death. Let us point it properly, “ Deep deep within. 
Death, his half-brother, lies;” and we at once perceive 
the meaning to be, that deep within the cave lay Death^ 
the half-brother oi fome being mentioned before. 
Moft people have heard an anecdote faid to be con- 
neCIed^^th the murder of our Edward II. A note, in¬ 
tended to encourage the murder, was written, by a per¬ 
fon in authority, to the keeper of Berkeley-callle, in 
thefe words: Edvardum occidere nolite timere, bonum. eji ; 
which, if pointed as above, is clearly an encourage¬ 
ment to the murder ; remove the comma from tinure to 
nolite, and it is the direCt contrary. But the ferap was 
written without any point at all, fo that it might be in¬ 
terpreted as fuited the convenience or defigns of the 
parties. 
As points, when ufed at all in writing, are very fre¬ 
quently put in at hazard, they fometimes have a ludi¬ 
crous efteCl in altering the fenfe, or at leaft the meaning. 
Under Sharp’s portrait of Brothers are thefe words: 
“ Believing Brothers to be a prophet really appointed 
by God, I have engraved his portrait.” By a liip of 
the graver, the comma was put in the wrong place, and 
the I'ubfcription ftood thus : “ Believing Brothers to be 
a prophet really appointed, by God I have engraved his 
portrait.” Thefe miftakes, ludicrous or ferious, are 
moftly in the placing of the comma; and it has been 
before obferved, that thofe, who are intimate with the 
comma, will feldom be at a lofs in placing the other 
points. 
F'ew will hefitate in placing the period; for almoft all 
know when the fenfe is complete; and, coiifequently, 
fuppofing them poITeffed of the comma’s ufe and of the 
period’s fituation, the difficulty is reduced to the re¬ 
maining two only. The colon never intervenes in gram¬ 
matical conftru6tion, and the lemi-colon but feldom ; 
they are uleful in marking a different degree of con¬ 
nexion between one fentence and another; but in readi 
ing no material error can arife from f'ubllituting one for 
the other. It is becaufe the colon never interferes ia 
grammatical conftrudlion, that it was fo long a cuftom,. 
in printing, to place a capital letter after a colon, the 
fame as after a period: this was adhered to as Ion- as 
books were printed with a capital letter to every fub- 
ftantive. 
Pundluation ftioiild lead to the fenfe; the fenfe will 
guide to modulation and emphafis. When punctuation 
perforins' its office thus, it will point out likewife the 
gramBoatical conftrudlion; for the fenfe of a paii'a^e and 
its 
