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A

TREATISE

ON

ENGLISH PUNCTUATION;

DESIGNED FOR

LETTER-WRITERS, AUTHORS, PRINTERS, AND
CORRECTORS OF THE PRESS;

AND FOR

THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES.

With an Appendix,

CONTAINING RULES ON THE USE OF CAPITALS, A LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS,
HINTS ON THE PREPARATION OF COPY AND ON PROOF-READING,

SPECIMEN OF PROOF-SHEET, ETC.

BY JOHN WILSON.

SIXTH EDITION.

BOSTON:

CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY,

111, WASHINGTON STREET.

1856.

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by

JOHN WILSON,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,

No. 22, SCHOOL STREET.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

IN presenting anew the following treatise, the author would say, that, agreeably to the admission contained in the closing paragraph of the Preface to the second edition, he has embraced the opportunity of making what is conceived to be further improvements, by changing occasionally the modes of expression, enlarging the remarks and exercises, rewriting and extending the section on compound and derivative words, drawing up a more copious list of abbreviations, offering to young authors some considerations on the preparation of "copy," and appending a full and minute Index. He feels justified in affirming, that not only in its present form, but in its past, this book is the most complete of any on the subject that he has seen; a great portion of its contents, though in practical operation, not being found in any other work. He mentions this, not by way of boast, but merely to show the incorrectness of an assertion made in the Preface to a work on " Composition and Rhetoric," recently published; in which the writer of it states, that, as Punctuation, "when considered at all in educational text-books, is treated only in the most cursory manner, it was regarded as a desideratum to present in this volume a complete and thorough system, which should cover exceptions as well as rules, and provide for every possible case, however rare or intricate;" that writer having forgotten, that the second edition of the present work-which was probably then lying on his table, and the "Introduction" to which, in its plan and thought, if not in its expression, coincides remarkably with his Lesson on "the Principles of the Art" of Punctuation · contains at least double the number of the pages which he devotes to the setting-forth of his system.

22, SCHOOL STREET, Boston, January, 1855.

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