A secretary of one of those clubs presented a petition to the house, in which he declared positively, and offered to prove at the bar, that part of the report was totally false. At first their lordships blustered; their high blood seemed to boil: but at last the chairman of the committee apologized for the report by saying, that there ought to have been a full point where there was only a comma! and that it was this which made that false which would otherwise have been, and which was intended to be, true!"

The following instance may be of service :

"The prisoners answering, said the leaders, were all beheaded."

The meaning of this is, "The leaders said the prisoners were all beheaded." By taking away the comma after leaders, we shall have an opposite sense:—

"The prisoners answering, said the leaders were all beheaded."

What a surprising transformation! The omission of that single comma has spared the poor prisoners, but, unfortunately, has beheaded the leaders. It would be just as easy to behead a king, or even to overthrow a whole kingdom.

5. Let me, then, invite you, now that you have seen the utility of strict attention to the use of points, diligently to peruse the following pages, which I shall endeavour to set before you in the most comprehensive form, and, I doubt not, you will be highly gratified with the result of your labour.

6. The points, or stops, denoting connexion, may be

estimated at seven, each of which, you will perceive after its name, as follows:

Comma, Semicolon; Colon: Period. Dash Note of Interrogation? Note of Admiration! See No. 94.

THE COMMA.

7. The order in which I, here, exhibit the points, I shall adhere to in the exemplification of their different functions. In the case of the four first, each one will serve as an introduction to the next in succession. By the comma, or, rather, its use, being primarily impressed upon the mind, we shall be furnished with a stepping-stone to the semicolon, and, in like manner, with the colon and period.

8. But to proceed to rule:

All parenthetical, or explanatory, words and phrases are to be separated by the comma, as :—

Cyrus, the younger, king of Persia, was remarkable for his greatness of soul and love of virtue."

9. A word or phrase called parenthetical, is part of a sentence interspersed merely as explanatory, or elucidatory, of some part of the real sentence. The word preceding a parenthetical word or phrase will unite, in. construction, with the word succeeding, and hence it arises, that the parenthetical part or parts of any passage may be inserted or not, at pleasure.

"Cyrus was remarkable for his greatness of soul and love of virtue."

This harmonizes as well without as with the appendaged, the younger, king of Persia. Each paren

thetical phrase ought to be separated by the comma. If we employ no point between younger and king, we make a younger and an elder king of Persia, but, by the comma, we have the younger Cyrus, who was the king of Persia.

"Shall I take the narcissus, or daffodil?"

Daffodil is merely explanatory of narcissus, or, in fact, daffodil is but another word for narcissus. Or is merely to connect the two together, and may be considered as belonging to the parenthesis. We may render the thus: passage

"Shall I take this flower, which is called the narcissus, or, by its more common name, the daffodil ?"

Were it not for the parenthetical "by its more common name" being introduced, no comma, you are aware, would be called for after or.

10. Take this as an opposite elucidation :

"Shall I take the narcissus or rose?"

By a little reflection, you will perceive not the slightest necessity for the comma after narcissus, because the rose is a different flower.

11. The comma after parenthetical in the rule which is now more immediately under our consideration, tells us, that explanatory is indicative of the same meaning as parenthetical.

12. The grand characteristic of a parenthetical phrase

is, that it tells us what is already told, or, at least, understood, and hence it is, as I have before intimated, that its insertion or omission remains at the option of the writer.

13. The following extract, from Fletcher's Last Check to Antinomianism, will settle this point:

"If ye (believers, says he,) fulfil the royal law, according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well : (Ye acquit yourselves like perfect Christians.) But if ye have (uncharitably) respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors: (that is, Ye are condemned by the Mediator's law, under which ye are.) For whosoever shall keep the whole law (of the Mediator;) and yet (uncharitably) offend in one point, he is guilty of all, &c. So speak ye, (therefore) and so do, as people that shall be judged by the law of liberty (the Mediator's law). For he (the imperfect, uncharitable, fallen believer) shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy."

The above is from James, ii. 8, excepting, of course, the clauses within the ( ), which are the handy-work of Fletcher. We will, first, view it as Fletcher found it :

"If ye fulfil the royal law, according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors: For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all, &c. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy."

I am not at all disposed to find fault with the frequent recurrence of the () in this extract: the

peculiarity of the subject may demand it. I would, however, urge you to guard as much as possible against introducing parenthetical words into ordinary composition. All that you find wanting in the latter of these instances, Fletcher has inserted in the former, by way of, as he thinks, explaining the language of Saint James the more clearly. Bear in mind, that all parenthetical, or explanatory, words and phrases must be set apart by the comma. This mode of treating the () reveals to us a novel and absolute remedy for all the inconsistencies and mysteries of the mockprecision of our forefathers. The modern schoolboy, who has scarcely reached his teens, may well jeer and laugh whilst analizing the quacklike pretensions and practices of by-gone days. Not only is the ( ) now drooping to insignificancy, but the, is aspiring to its legitimate preeminence, and dispelling the gloom and darkness which have too long manifested their selves in the (,) ( :) ( ) ( ;) ( .) and such like incongruous stumbling blocks to plainness and simplicity. By a comparison, you will not fail to observe a striking difference between the following and the former of the preceding quotations :

"If ye," believers, says he, "fulfil the royal law, according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well," ye acquit yourselves like perfect Christians: "But if ye have," uncharitably," respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors," that is, ye are condemned by the Mediator's law, under which ye are: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law," of the Mediator," and yet," uncharitably, "offend in one point, he is guilty of all, &c. So speak ye,"