Among modern writers Carlyle makes himself offensive by his extravagant use of capitals. In certain passages in some of his latest writings almost every prominent noun is thus marked. This is contrary to modern policy, which reserves the sign of distinction for words of distinction. Carlyle's capitals are, in fact, a reversion to the practice of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries. Thus:

Thus doing, your name shall florish in the Printers shops. Thus doing, you shall be of kin to many a Poeticall Preface. Thus doing, you shalbe most faire, most rich, most wise, most all: you shal dwel vpon Superlatiues.-SIDNEY: Defence of Poesy, ed. 1595.

All the infections that the Sunne suckes vp
From Bogs, Fens, Flats, on Prosper fall, etc.

Tempest, ii. 2, 1, folio of 1623.

And though a Linguist should pride himself to have all the Tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet, if he have not studied the solid things in them as well as the Words & Lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any Yeoman or Tradesman competently wise in his Mother Dialect only.-MILTON: Tractate on Education, ed. 1673.

When this Wall was finished, and the Out-side double fenc'd with a Turff-Wall rais'd up close to it, I perswaded my self, that if any People were to come on Shore there, they would not perceive any Thing like a Habitation.-DE FOE: Robinson Crusoe, p. 89.

If you do not, you Man or you Nation, love the Truth enough, but try to make a chapman-bargain with Truth, instead of giving yourself wholly soul and body and life to her, Truth will not live with you, Truth will depart from you; and only Logic, 'Wit' (for example, 'London Wit'); Sophistry, Virtù, the Esthetic Arts, and perhaps (for a short while) Book-keeping by Double Entry will abide with you.CARLYLE: Frederick the Great, Book iii., ch. viii.

ITALICS.

140. Italics are marked in writing by underscoring the word or words. Their use is not governed by precise rules; but there are three general cases:

1. To mark a foreign term still felt to be foreign. E. g.:

But, in other respects, he was a man comme il faut. However his mornings might be spent, his soirées were elegant, etc.-DE QUINCEY (Dr. Samuel Parr), v. 28.

2. To quote the title of one composition in the body of another, or to quote a brief passage in a foreign language, sometimes in the English language. E. g.:

In the Merchant of Venice our interest is at the beginning fixed upon Antonio, etc.--MOULTON: Shakespeare, p. 67.

"De mortuis nil nisi bonum" :-This famous canon of charity (" Concerning the dead let us have nothing but what is kind and favourable") has furnished an inevitable occasion for much doubtful casuistry.DE QUINCEY (Dr. Samuel Parr), v. 11, note.

3. To mark words which are emphatic or prominent.

E. g.:

Such a suggestion moreover makes the whole play [Julius Cæsar] one complete wave of popular fickleness from crest to crest.-MOULTON: Shakespeare, p. 189.

The use of italics in case No. 1 is now almost regular, though some writers prefer, for Latin at least, quotationmarks, e. g., "modus operandi."

In case No. 2 some writers use both italics and quotation-marks; other writers use neither device; others, again, use one or the other. E. g. :

We may justly regard "Paradise Lost" as one of the noblest monuments of human genius.

We may justly regard Paradise Lost as, etc.

We may justly regard “Paradise Lost" as, etc.

We may justly regard Paradise Lost as, etc.

The last form seems to be the one most favored at present. As to case No. 3, the young are urgently advised to be very sparing in the use of italics. It is much better to underscore not at all than to underscore too much. Underscoring, like the dash (§ 135), is employed to excess by women, especially in letter-writing. E. g.:

"My dear Major Pendennis," the letter ran, “I beg and implore you to come to me immediately"—very likely, thought Pendennis, and

U

Steyne's dinner to-day-"I am in the greatest grief and perplexity. My dearest boy, who has been hitherto everything the fondest mother could wish, is grieving me dreadfully," etc.-THACKERAY: Pendennis, ch. i.

WORD-BREAKING.

141. As here used, the term does not include the numerous technical rules according to which a word is apportioned between the end of one line and the beginning of the next in a printed page. Those rules concern the printer only, and not the writer as writer.

When the writer, on approaching the end of a manuscript line, sees that there is not space enough for the whole of the next word, without crowding, what shall he do?

1. He may leave the remaining space blank, beginning the word on the next line.

2. Or he may break, i. e., divide the word between the two lines.

Instead of trying to tell the young writer exactly when and how he may break, it is far safer to tell him when not to break. Hence a general warning:

If you are in the slightest uncertainty, do not break, but begin the word on the next line.

The following are special warnings:

1. Never break a monosyllable.

2. Do not break short dissyllables, such words as any, able, upon, about, master, lion, real, spirit, tyro.

3. Do not break any word in such a way as to begin the second line with the syllables -el, -er, -ic, -al, -ing, -ly, and the like. Perhaps even -dom is undesirable.

4. Make your breakings etymological, i. e., in accordance with the composition of the word. Thus, the following breakings are good:

arch-angel,

looking-glass,

resent-ment,
circum-scribe,

trans-port,

false-hood.

The following are bad, at least in writing:

Writing can always be slightly contracted or expanded without attracting attention. The writer, therefore, by adjusting his characters to any given line, can always avoid the problem of breaking. A little closer writing in the middle of the line will enable him to get in such a syllable as -ic or -ty at the end. A little looser writing will save him from the temptation of ending with a- and beginning with bout, round, or lone; will also spare him the necessity of considering whether ex-amine is good.

Even a blank space at the end of the line is decidedly better than an awkward breaking.

CHAPTER XV.

READING AND COMPOSITION.

142. In the present section a few preliminary questions are discussed.

1. What should be the allowance of time for English in the high school? A generous but not excessive allowance would be one daily exercise for at least three years.* This allowance will not appear excessive, if we consider that the course is to include the appreciative study of certain representative works in prose and poetry, the mastering of a text-book of composition, and a large amount of writing, with careful correction.

The object of the course is to train pupils in the art of writing well. To write well means:

To spell correctly, to discriminate in the use of words, to arrange words in proper grammatical relation, to group sentences in a paragraph organized around a central thought or opinion, to co-ordinate half a dozen or more paragraphs so as to indicate, approximately at least, some evolution of the thinking faculty.t

Evidently, to secure all these ends there must be incessant practice in writing: let us say two paragraphs, each of 150 or 200 words, every week. For the advantages of paragraph-writing, see § 16. But an occasional essay of 600 to 1000 words is indispensable, being the only means of instruction in paragraph-grouping. See Ch. XIII.

2. What is the true function of a text-book of composition the present book, for instance-in the English course?

* An exercise is here reckoned at forty-five minutes. If a full hour is given, the number of weekly exercises may be reduced to four.

†The School Review, January, 1894, p. 38.