t00 
.‘ 
troduction of. points 5 and as he protefles 
to with for further information en this 
" head, for his and your readers’ fetisfac- 
“tion, I fhall take up the fubject where he 
has left it; and then, after his example, 
commend it to fome of your other cor- 
re{pondents, whg, from their collections of 
ancient books, are enabled to favour your 
readers with additional facts. 
The femicolon, with regard to inten- 
tion, is evidently a refinement cf the more 
ancient colon; .and with regard to figure, 
it feems originally to have- been nothin 
more than an alteration of the old black- 
letter abbreviation gue, in atque, ttaque, &c. 
This might be made Lene not only 
from her W.A.S. has obferved, but 
from the gradations of the character; and 
snore particularly and fatisfaCorily ‘from 
the very nature of thofe fubdivifons of 
difcourfe, which are parted off by femi- 
colon, and which generally correfpond 
to thofe conjoined by que and its com- 
pounds. 
W.A.S. cannot find the femicolon 
eftablithed fo early as ‘‘ Fox’s Adis and 
Monuments,’ B.L. 1641: yet he mutt 
not conclude, that it does not exift in 
earlier books; for exaraples fhall be ; pro- 
duced, proving a much more ancient in- 
vention thereat, from which the reafon 
may be’ found oe it is not used in that 
and other black-letter books. 
The firft example I bring forward is a 
learned work, with fine wooden cuts, in- 
titled, ‘* Imagines Deorum,” Vinc. Char- 
terio: printed at Leyden, in 1581, in 
Roman letter. In this book all the ufual 
pots; Viz. CO! Be femicolon, colon, and 
period, are See) ved exaétly in the fame 
form, and with the fame entent nel as we 
do now. 
‘The next is the tranflation of a juftly 
celebrated book, written in French, by 
that brave, wife, and good gentleman, 
Philip Mornay, Lord of Piefiis ; whofe 
-excellence as a chriftian, a Oe 
and hero, receives feveral tributes of jul 
Pia, even from Voltaire in his ** Heg- 
‘This was made into Englifh, by 
a cliaraéter in fome ie: fimilar to the 
French author, viz. Sir Philip Sidaey, 
who intitled it, ‘* The Frewneffe of the 
Chriftian Religion: printed by T. Cad- 
man, 1587, B.L. Here are fonnd, the 
afterifk, the brackets, the interrogative; 
the comma, and the femicoion, all as we 
now ufe them; there are alfo the colon, 
and the period; “but thefe are {quare dots. 
iigisey << Sckool-Maftcr” of Roper Af- 
eham was printed in 1570, B. L. ~There- 
in I do not obferve the femicolon; al- 
7tade 
On the Introduction of Points. 
fAug. 
though i it contains many divifions, where, 
if we oo weigh the learning and judg- 
ment of the author, we might conelude 
he would have employed it, if a femicolon 
had then been cuftomary: but in all fuch 
afes he contents himfelf with the colcn 
or the comma, at leaft as far as my fearch 
gives me authority to fpeak. ° 
Now, if the modern ufe of the femi- 
colon was not known to Afcham in 1570, 
and as it was copioufly ufed by Sidney ; 
it is by no means impoflible that fig 
gentleman and elegant fcholar invented 
iL, or at leaft brought it into fafhion. Sir 
Philip’s book, like many others printed 
in his age, is partly in Roman and partly 
in bjack-letter; from which cireumfance 
I think I can deduce the caufes that pro- 
duced the modern ufe of the femic olcn as 
they occurred to him, or to fome other 
of his time. I have already remarked on 
the fimilarity of the fentences joined by 
que, and disjoined by femicolon; and no- 
ticed the tranfition of the contraéted fign 
into that of femicolon. Let us now {fee 
how all this would operate in an age when 
books were dreffed up in the party- -CO- 
loured livery of Roman and black-letter. 
In the black-letter was found the colon, 
and the period formed by fquare dots; in 
the Roman was found the comma, and 
the ulons and all thefe he was in 
fome meafure obliged to ufe uniformly, 
inafmuch as he, with propriety, chofe to 
point his’ whole book alike. Thus the 
ingenious applicati on of a fort of accident 
has produced the jupericr modern method 
of pointing, whereby all the nice yet na- 
ural divifions of difcourfe can be ac- 
curately diftinguifhed. 
Ik am by no means, however, fully fa- 
tished, that the invention of the modern 
ufe of femicolon lies with Sir Philip Sid- 
ney; fince there is now open befcre me 
an alchemical manufeript, whofe date is 
15723; where femicolon, as well as the 
three other ftops, are uied as freely and 
properly as now, and’in the fame ‘form. 
T am alfo in poffeflion of a feries of me- 
dical traéts. in manuicript t, with illu- 
minated capitals, written in the year 
E461, “se | Siehiee OF Vrynes, &c. in 
wuich, although the hand- -writing, from 
the antiquity and the number of contrac- 
tions, is fcarcely legible, yet there are 
fome marks that verp much refemble the 
comma, femicolon, colon, and period. 
Indeed, the camma, the colon, and the 
period, are common in ancient printed 
books up to acertain age, which I fhall 
fpeak of lait of all; and in which there 
is fcarcely to be obferyed any mark de- 
noting 
3.7 
