1. A declarative or assertive sentence, and an imperative sentence
should be followed by a period; as, _Your friend gave me a book_. _Open
the door._
2. An interrogative sentence should be followed by the interrogation
mark; as, _When did you come?_
3. An exclamatory word or sentence should be followed by the exclamation
mark; as, _But hush! hark! A deep sound strikes like a rising knell!_
4. Every abbreviated word should be followed by a period; as, _Mr._,
_Rev._
5. The title of a composition, the address and the signature of a
person, should be followed by a period.
6. Words that are in the same grammatical relation should be separated
by commas; as, _He is honest, capable, and sympathetic._
Two words that are in the same grammatical relation and connected by
_and_, _or_, or _nor_, should not be separated by a comma; as, _She is
kind and good_.
7. Words or phrases in apposition should be separated from the rest of
the sentence by commas; as, _Lady Aberdeen, the wife of the Governor of
Canada, has gone on an ocean voyage_.
8. A transposed phrase or clause, not closely united with the sentence,
should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma; as, _In
their large cities, the Egyptians built massive temples_.
9. Words or phrases placed between closely related parts of a sentence
should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas; as, _Their
whole army, in fact, did not exceed thirty thousand men_.
10. The name of a person addressed should be separated from the rest of
the sentence by a comma; as, _James, hand me the brush._
11. The clauses of a compound sentence, when short and closely
connected, should be separated by a comma; as, _I finished my work, and
then came home._
12. The clauses of a compound sentence, if they are contracted, or are
long, or are not closely connected, should be separated by a semicolon;
as, _Man counts his life by years; the oak, by centuries. His left hand
only was free; his open knife was in this hand._
13. A direct quotation should be enclosed by quotation marks; as, _He
said, “I shall go.” “He is a tall and stately king,” said Harold; “but
his end is near.”_
14. If a quotation is short, it should be separated from the preceding
part of the sentence by a comma; as, _He replied, “I am a Briton born.”_
15. If a quotation is long, or if it is formally introduced by _as
follows_, _these words_, _etc._, it should be separated from the
preceding part of the sentence by a colon; as, _He replied in these
words: “I am a Briton born, and a Briton I shall die.”_
16. When an unexpected break, pause, or turn occurs in a sentence, it
should be indicated by a dash; as,
_To-night will be a stormy night_—
_You to the town must go._
17. Explanatory words which are not necessary to the sense of the
passage, should be enclosed in marks of parenthesis; as,
_Know, then, this truth (enough for man to know),_
_Virtue alone is happiness below._
18. The parts of a compound word when they have not become united into
one word, are connected by a hyphen; as, _to-day_, _wind-organ_.
A hyphen is also used at the end of a line when a word is divided into
syllables.
* * * * *
=LESSON LXVII.=