instances where a combination of harsh consonants necessarily requires the ed always to be articulated as a syllable; and except also in Sacred Scripture, portions of which should be read in a very solemn manner, the propriety of supplying the place of the e with an apostrophe is exceedingly questionable. In many recent publications, therefore, the mark of elision has been thrown aside in regard to such words, and a grave accent placed on the e in those only which are lengthened for the sake of the rhythm; as will be seen in the following lines:

Some writers, however, prefer to mark the additional syllable by an acute accent or a diæresis on the vowel; as, mailed or brightened. But, as the acute accent is sometimes used in poetry to point out a change in the true accentuation of a word, -as aspect, instead of áspect, - and the diæresis to separate in pronunciation two vowels coming together, as Danaë, it would be better to appropriate in verse the grave accent to the lengthening of words ending in ed.

h. In the preceding paragraph, we have endeavored to show the inutility of substituting the apostrophe for an e, in the termination ed, when pronounced in union with a preceding syllable. It may, however, be proper to admit, that many respectable authors and printers adopt a middle course in reference to the words under consideration. They always retain the e in the imperfect tense and perfect participle of those verbs whose infinitive ends in that letter, but in poetry use an apostrophe in the same forms of verbs, when the infinitive terminates with a consonant; as, "to grieve, grieved; to gain, gain'd." They also, as a matter of course, reject as useless the accent in such a word as numberèd, when the ed forms an additional syllable; the e being retained as an exception to their general rule, in order to show that the ed does not coalesce with the preceding syllable. The mode of using the vowel and the apostrophe, here adverted to, is exemplified in the following lines:

Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd,
And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard:

To carry nature lengths unknown before,

To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.

i. Though but indirectly connected with punctuation, it may be remarked, that some of the past participles, having the termination ed, are in verse frequently written or printed with a t, as in the words blest, drest, dreamt; and this mode of spelling, though not analogical, is by no means unpleasant to the eye. In prose, however, when participles having both terminations occur, it is better to adopt that which is more usual; being, to speak generally, the regular form, ed.

ORAL EXERCISES.

State the reason given in the Rule for inserting an apostrophe in the words thus marked, and read them both in the elided and the full form:

'Mid such a heavenly scene as this, death is an empty name.
Thou'lt yet survive the storm, and bloom in paradise.
Methought that I lay naked and faint 'neath a tropic sky.
If I'd a throne, I'd freely share it with thee.

That lesson in my memory I'll treasure up with care.

I might have lived, and 'joyed immortal bliss.

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy.

Let me thy voice betimes i'the morning hear.

Night stretches forth her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.
The thing they can't but purpose, they postpone.

E'en with the tender tear which nature sheds o'er those we love.
Thou'rt neither fair nor strong nor wise nor rich nor young.
You're overwatched, my lord: lie down and rest.
Here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal.
Give a single lightning glance, and he'll dwindle to a calf.
One, 'midst the forests of the West, by a dark stream is laid.
Whene'er I wander in the grove, and gaze upon the lake.
Do not ask who'll go with you: go ahead.

Tie up the knocker; say I'm sick,·

I'm dead.

Go to, I'll no more of't: it hath made me mad.

If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth.

Or in some hollowed seat, 'gainst which the big waves beat.
Faint's the cold work till thou inspire the whole.

A mingled air: 'twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.
That errand-bound 'prentice was passing in haste.

You've pulled my bell as if you'd jerk it off the wire.

Of herself survey she takes, but 'tween men no difference makes. For 'twixt the hours of twelve and one, methought I heard him shriek.

Show how the insertion or the omission of apostrophes in certain words, occurring in these portions of verse, is borne out by the preceding Remarks : —

Strike till the last armed foe expires!

Here Edwin and his Emma oft would stray,
To enjoy the coolness of the evening breeze.

The toiling ploughman drives his thirsty teams
To taste the slippery streams.

Though darkness o'er a slumbering world
Her sable mantle throw,
Returning splendors are unfurled,

And all is bright below.

Unthinking, idle, wild, and young,

I laughed and talked, and danced and sung;
And, proud of health, of freedom vain,
Dreamt not of sorrow, care, or pain.

Serenity broods o'er my mind;

For I daily pray to Heaven,

That, when the hour of death arrives,
My sins may be forgiven.

But come, thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne,
And by men heart-easing Mirth;
Whom lovely Venus, at a birth,
With two sister Graces more,

To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore.

Oh! when my friend and I
In some thick wood have wandered heedless on,
Hid from the vulgar eye, and sat us down
Upon the sloping cowslip-covered bank,
Where the pure, limpid stream has slid along
In grateful errors through the underwood,

Sweet murmuring, methought the shrill-tongued thrush
Mended his song of love; the sooty blackbird
Mellowed his pipe, and softened every note;
The eglantine smelled sweeter, and the rose
Assumed a dye more deep; whilst every flower
Vied with its fellow-plant in luxury

Of dress. Oh! then, the longest summer's day
Seemed too, too much in haste; still the full heart

Had not imparted half: 'twas happiness

Too exquisite to last. Of joys departed,

Not to return, how painful the remembrance!

EXERCISE TO BE WRITTEN.

Insert the apostrophe wherever necessary; and mark a grave accent on the vowel in ED in verse, when pronounced as an additional syllable: —

As Yorkshire Humphrey, tother day,

Oer London Bridge was stumping

That forked flash, that pealing crash,
Seemed from the wave to sweep her.

At once they sprang

With haste aloft, and, peering bright,
Descried afar the blessed sight.

For who but He that arched the skies
Could rear the daisy's purple bud,
Mould its green cup, its wiry stem,
Its fringed border nicely spin,
And cut the gold-embossed gem,

That, set in silver, gleams within?

Oer Idalia's velvet green the rosy-crowned Loves are seen.

Now, brothers, bending oer the accursed loom,
Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.

From seventeen years till now, almost fourscore,
Here lived I, but now live here no more.

Then lighted from his gorgeous throne; for now
Twixt host and host but narrow space was left.

Approach, and read (for thou canst read) the lay
Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.

Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Splitst the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the soft myrtle.

A bearded man,

Armed to the teeth art thou: one mailed hand
Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword.

Blest be the day I scaped the wrangling crew
From Pyrrho's maze and Epicurus' sty,
And held high converse with the godlike few,

Who, to the enraptured heart and ear and eye,
Teach beauty, virtue, truth, and love, and melody.

It gazes on those glazed eyes, it hearkens for a breath;
It does not know that kindness dies, and love departs from death.

RULE II.

The Genitive or Possessive Case.

The apostrophe is used to distinguish the possessive case of nouns; which is usually formed in the singular number by adding to the nominative an s, with an apostrophe before it, and in the plural by simply annexing this mark.

EXAMPLES.

1. What majesty attends Night's lovely queen!
2. The Ages' voice speaks everlasting truth.

REMARK S.

a. The apostrophe is sometimes used in the singular number without the additional s, when the nominative ends in s, ss, ce, or x; as, "Moses' rod," "for righteousness' sake," "for conscience' sake," "the administratrix' sale." This mode of punctuation holds good chiefly in proper names having a foreign termination, and in such common nouns as are seldom used in the plural, - - an exception to the rule of forming the possessive singular, which is founded on the propriety of modifying the disagreeable nature of the hissing sound.

b. Recourse, however, should not be had to the principle laid down in the preceding remark, when its adoption would cause ambiguity, or when the addition of the s is not offensive to a refined ear. For instance, the Italic words in the phrases, "Burns's Poems," "James's book," "Thomas's cloak," "the fox's tail," though they contain the hissing sound, are not particularly unpleasant, and are far more analogical and significant than the abbreviated forms, "Burns' Poems," ," "James' book," "Thomas' cloak," "the fox' tail."

c. We have no doubt that the distinctions here suggested are important, and accord with the genius of the English language; but in poetry none but the author himself should change the form of the possessive, whether written with or without the annexed s, as, unless the whole line were recast, such an alteration would probably mar the harmony of the verse. Even in prose, a printer should not take the liberty of changing the form of a possessive, without the consent of the author; this matter being yet a subject on which there is a difference of opinion among literary men.