66

Compare Letter XXIV., page 336; and Dante, Paradiso, XXIV. 16."

"Brantwood, 13th September, 1877." "Venice, Easter Sunday, 1877.”

"Venice, Sunday, 4th March, 1877."

"He was baptised, April 26, 1564."

"His literary life may be said to begin with his entrance into Cambridge, in 1625."

"This was the Princess Alexandrina Victoria, who was born in Kensington Palace on May 24th, 1819."

"For exquisite metrical movement . . there is nothing in our language to be compared with Christabel, 1816, and Kubla Khan and The Ancient Mariner, published as one of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798."

5. a. When the subject is separated from its verb by a long modifying phrase or clause, there is often a comma immediately before the verb.

b. When words occurring in a series govern one verb at the end, a comma should follow the last word of the series. This comma shows that the last word bears to the verb no closer relation than the preceding words of the series.

EXAMPLES.

a. "The familiarity with the customs, manners, actions, and writings of the ancients, makes him a very delicate observer of what occurs to him in the present world."

"About this time there went a rumor throughout the valley, that the great man, foretold from ages long ago, who was to bear a resemblance to the Great Stone Face, had appeared at last."

"Take warning; he that will not sing

While yon sun prospers in the blue,
Shall sing for want ere leaves are new."

b. "The Tempest, Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, bring his history up to 1612."

"Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains."

EXERCISE.

Complete the punctuation of the following passages:

1. This was the Amsterdam edition of 1707, in 2 vols, 12 mo, inscribed, E libris A Pope 1714, and, lower down, Finished ye translation in Feb 1719-20, A Pope It also contained a pencil sketch by the poet, of Twickenham Church

2. Neither did Ernest know that the thoughts and affections which came to him so naturally in the fields, and at the fireside, and wherever he communed with himself were of a higher tone than those which all men shared with him

3. Art has been less thoughtful than we suppose; it has taught much, but much, also, falsely Many of the greatest pictures are enigmas; others beautiful toys; others harmful and corrupting toys

4. Records of proud days and of dear persons make every rock monumental with ghostly inscriptions, and every path lovely with noble desolateness

5. When I gave you in Fors Vol I page 51 the little sketch of the pillaging of France by Edward III before the battle of Crécy, a great many of my well-to-do friends said, Why does he print such things?

6. From the records of the College of Surgeons it appears that Goldsmith underwent his examinations at Surgeons Hall on the 21st of December 1758

7. But the vessel in which the Prince of Scotland sailed was taken by an English cruiser

8. These verses above noticed (II 134), with one following sonnet were extremely earnest

9. See Præterita Vol I pp 78 79

10. And the best skill that any teacher of art could spend here in your help would not end in enabling you even so much as rightly to draw the water-lilies in the Cherwell.

11. Lockharts Life of Scott Vol IV page 371.

12. On April 18 1593 about a week before his twentyninth birthday, Venus and Adonis, his first published work, was entered in the Stationers Register

13. Spectator No 341 Tuesday April 1 1712.

14. The tenderness of Milton, his love of beauty, the passionate fitness of his words to his work, his religious depth fill the scenes

15. Its dramatic dialogue, its clear types of character, its vivid descriptions, as of Vanity Fair, and of places such as the Dark Valley, and the Delectable Mountains, which represent states of the human soul have given an equal but a different pleasure to children and men

M

16. I have not time to tell of the pretty little ways in which it came about, but they all ended in my driving to No 1 Cambridge St on the 19th April 1864

17. First my fear; then my court sy; last my speech My fear is your displeasure; my court sy my duty; and my speech to beg your pardons

18. We find also in his work certain elements which belonged to the second period of which I shall soon speak The love of animals is one A great love of children and the poetry of home another

19. Pope died in 1744, Swift in 1745

20. Plato is philosophy, and philosophy Plato

21. It is in the possession of Mr Hawkesworth Fawkes of Farnley, one of Turners earliest and truest friends; and bears the inscription, Passage of Mont Cenis, J M W Turner January 15th 1820

22. There was a good deal of story-telling in some quarters; in others little but silence

23. The author was not sent to the galleys nor the players to the house of correction

24. The birds, sheep, cattle, and wild creatures of the wood and field fill as large a space in the poetry of Burns as in that of Wordsworth and Coleridge

25. The rapid increase of manufactures, science, and prosperity which began with the middle of the eighteenth century is paralleled by the growth of Literature

26. He was a white Spitz, exactly like Carpaccios dog in the picture of St Jerome

27. Cash statement of St Georges Company to Dec 31

LESSON XLI.

PUNCTUATION (Continued).

IV. THE COMMA.

6. a. When two words or phrases in the same construction occur in a series, they should be separated by a comma, unless connected by a conjunction.

b. Even when two such words or phrases are so connected, if it is necessary to restrict a modifying word or phrase to one alone, they should be separated by a comma. c. Where more than two such words or phrases occur, they should be separated by commas whether connected by conjunctions or not, unless the connection is so close that the comma seems unnecessary.

"Twelve months had Wayland worked day and night at his forge."

"They fled through the long, dark tunnel."

"He was crossed in love by a perverse, beautiful widow of the next county."

"I know a secret underground passage.'

b. "A great part of their time is spent in seeing churches and palaces full of pictures."

1 When one of the two adjectives has been made, as it were, a part of the noun (e.g. " underground passage "), there need be no comma between them.