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tence, though almoft three times as long, is as perfectly fimple as the former.

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The neceffity of taking breath, in fome of thefe longer fimple fentences, has obliged the most accurate and metaphyfical inquirers into punctuation to admit of the most vague and indeterminate rules.-The moft fubtile among the French writers* on this fubject, after giving a thousand fine-fpun reafons for placing the points with juftnefs and precifion, admits of placing a comma in a fimple fentenceQuand les propofitions font trop longues pour "être énoncées de fuite avec aifance." And one of our best English critics tells us, that the difference between the colon and the femicolon has a dependence on fomething that influences all the points, and fways the whole doctrine of punctuation, which is, the length and shortnefs of the members and periods; for when the phrafes are long, he fays, we point higher than when they are short.

This confeffion is a fure proof, that the rules of these grammarians did not reach all cafes; and that, in fpeaking, they often found themfelves obliged to pause where they did not dare to infert a pause in writing, for fear of breaking the grammatical connection of the words: a fear, as will be seen hereafter, which arose from a fuperficial knowledge of the principles of rhetorical pronunciation.

But as a proof that the fhortest sentences are not always to be pronounced fo as to preferve a perfect equality of time between every word, and, confequently, that fome words admit of longer intervals than others; we need only pro

* Beauzée Grammaire Generale.

nounce a fhort fimple fentence in the different ways we did the long one.

Thus if we fay-The paffion for praise, produces excellent effects, in women of fenfe.-Here, I fay, if we make a fhort paufe at praife, and effects, we do not perceive the leaft impropriety; but if we repeat the fame fentence, and make the fame paufes at produces and in, we fhall foon discover an effential difference.-For example: The paffion for praise produces, excellent effects in, women of fenfe. Here, by using the fame paufe between different words, the sense is materially affected; which evidently fhews how neceffary it is to good reading and speaking, to paufe only between fuch words as admit of being feparated; and that it is not fo much the number as the pofition of the pauses that affects the fenfe of a sentence.

And here a queftion naturally arises, since it is of fo much confequence to the fenfe of a fentence where we admit a paufe, what are the parts of speech which allow a paufe between them, and what are those which do not? To which it may be answered, that the comma, or, what is equivalent to it in reading, a fhort pause, may be fo frequently admitted between words in a grammatical connection, that it will be much easier to fay where it cannot intervene, than where it can.-The only words which feem too intimately connected to admit a pause, are -the article and the fubftantive, the fubftantive and the adjective in their natural order, and the prepofition and the noun it governs; every other combination of words, when forming fimple fentences of confiderable length, feems divifible, if occafion require.-That a fubftantive in the

nominative case may be separated from the verb it governs, will be readily admitted, if we confider with how many adjuncts, or modifying words, it may be connected; and, confequently, how difficult it will be to carry the voice on to the verb with force, and to continue this force till the objective cafe with all its adjuncts and concomitants are pronounced: this will appear evidently from the amplified fentence already produced; which, though not a very common, is a very poffible example; and rules founded on the reason of a thing, muft either fuit all cafes or none.

Whatever, therefore, may be the integrity of grammatical connection to the eye, certain it is that the ear perceives neither obstruction nor obfcurity in a paufe between the nominative cafe and the verb, when the nominative is composed of fuch words as are lefs feparable. Nay, we find the substantive verb, by the moft fcrupulous grammarians, conftantly separated from its preceding noun by a comma, whenever the noun is joined to any confiderable number of lefs feparable words.

EXAMPLES.

One great use of prepofitions in English, is to exprefs those relations, which, in fome languages, are chiefly marked by cafes. Dr. Lowth's Grammar.

A colon, or member, is a chief constructive part, or greater divifion of a fentence. Ibid.

The very notion of any duration's being paft, implies that it was once prefent; for the idea of being once prefent, is actually included in the idea of its being paft.

Spectator, No. 590.

This punctuation of the fubftantive verb runs through our whole typography; and fufficiently

fhews the divifion which the ear invariably makes, when delivery requires a distinct and forcible pronunciation for not the fmallest reafon can be given, why this verb fhould be feparated from its noun, that will not be equally applicable to every other verb in the language.

The general reluctance, however, at admitting a pause to the eye, between the nominative cafe and the verb, is not without a foundation in reason. The paufes of distinction between the parts of a complex nominative case, feem fpecifically different from the pause between the nominative cafe and the verb: that the fame pause, therefore, to the eye fhould be ufed between both, feems repugnant to a feeling of the different kind of connection that fubfifts between parts which are only occafionally united, and thofe which are neceffarily united; thus in the following fentence: Riches, pleasure, and health become evils to the generality of man kind.

There are few readers who would not make a longer pause between the nominative health and the verb become, than between riches and pleafure, or pleafure and health; and yet there are few writers, or printers, who would not infert a pause after the two first words, and omit itafter the third. This general practice can arise from nothing but the perception of the difference there is between thofe parts that compose the nominative plural, and those parts which compofe the nominative and the verb; and rather than confound this difference, we choose to omit the paufe in writing, though we use it in fpeaking: till, therefore, we have a point, which, like one of the Hebrew points, at the

fame time, that it marks a diftinction between parts, marks a neceffary connection between them also, we must be contented to let this ufeful and distinguishing pause in reading and fpeaking go unmarked in writing and printing.

If we inquire into the difference between the parts of the nominative, and the nominative itself as part of the sentence, we fhall find that the former are only parts of a part, and that the latter is a part of a whole; or, in other words, the former are parts of a fuperior part, and the latter is the fuperior part itfelf; which part, as it confifts of feveral parts, must, in order to fhow that these parts form only one part, be terminated by a paufe, longer than what is given to the parts of which it is compofed; but as fuch a paufe can only be marked by a femicolon, and as a femicolon is often a mark of disjunction, it would be highly improper to place it between words fo intimately connected as the nominative and the verb; for as these words, except fometimes on account of emphasis, admit of no feparation by a pause, when the nominative does not confift of parts, fo, unless we had a paufe, which would fhew this union of each part with the other, without a difunion of the whole number of parts from what follows, we had better, perhaps, let this chafm in punctuation ftand unfilled. Where the parts are evidently diftinct, as in fentences conftructed on conjunctions, however fhort the parts may be, there seems no impropriety in placing a long pause thus, in the proverbial fentence, As the day lengthens the cold ftrengthens: we may place a comma, and even a femicolon, at lengthens, without appearing to injure the fenfe; but if

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