EXERCISE TO BE WRITTEN.

In putting commas between or after the serial words in the following sentences, be guided by the third Rule and the Remarks (pp. 37, 38):

Let holiness goodness virtue be to you the pearl of great price. (Rule, and first portion of Remark d.)

The recovery of our little darling dancing singing Mary is worth all the gold that ever was mined. (Rule, and Remark e.)

The hardships of a good life prove refine and exalt the human character. (Rule, and first portion of Remark g.)

No one can find peace but in the growth of an enlightened firm disinterested holy mind. (Rule, and Remark e.)

Ease indulgence luxury sloth are the sources of misery; making a man a poor sordid selfish wretched being. (Rule, and Remarks d, e.) A great soul is known by its enlarged strong and tender sympathies. (Rule, Remark e, and last of d.)

All that charms the eye or the ear or the imagination or the heart is the gift of God. (Remark h.)

The Indian nut alone is clothing, meat and trencher drink and can. (Remark i.)

All have some conceptions of truth kindness honesty self-denial and disinterestedness. (Rule, and Remark a.)

In a city there is much to inflame embitter degrade the minds of the poor. (Rule, and second portion of g.)

Let us every day become more pure kind gentle patient spiritual and devout. (Rule, and Remark a.)

Meekly truthfully disinterestedly the dying man had trod the path of life. (Rule, and Remark f.)

In heaven live the friends benefactors deliverers ornaments of their race. (Rule, and first of Remark d.)

True courage is the exercise result and expression of the highest attributes of our nature. (Rule, and last of Remark d.)

Some have unreasonably denied the strength and fervor and enduringness of human love. (Remark h.)

The Hebrew is closely allied to the Arabic the Phoenician the old Persian the Syriac and the Chaldee. (Rule, and Remark a.)

You are a parent or a child a brother or a sister a husband or a wife a friend or an associate of some kindred soul. (Remark j.)

Our present knowledge thoughts feelings characters are the results of former impressions passions and pursuits. (Rule, and Remarks d, a.)

RULE IV.

Nouns or Phrases in Apposition.

§ I. Two nouns or personal pronouns, or a noun and pronoun, one in apposition with the other, should not be separated by a comma, if they may be regarded as a proper name or as a single phrase.

§ II. But a noun or pronoun and a phrase, or two or more phrases, when put in apposition, are separated by a comma from each other, and, if the sentence or clause is unfinished, from what follows.

EXAMPLES.
§ I.

1. The poet Milton wrote excellent prose and better poetry.

2. It is well known that the word "philosopher" signifies lover of wisdom. 3. He himself was the editor of the work; but he left it a botch.

§ II.

1. Homer, the greatest poet of antiquity, is said to have been blind. 2. We, the people of the United States, are lovers of republicanism. 3. The twin sisters, Piety and Poetry, are wont to dwell together.

REMARKS.

a. The term noun here is so used as to apply either to a single word of this character, or to an unemphatic word and a noun. Thus, both words, "the poet," in the first example, are, to avoid circum locution, spoken of as a noun, and not as a phrase.

b. When two or more words can be treated as one compound name or as a single phrase, they do not admit a comma between them; as, "Alexander of Macedon; Sir William Jones; our Lord Jesus Christ; the Lord God Almighty." But if names, titles, or characteristics are so applied as to vary the thought, or produce a separate impression on the mind, they should be set apart by a comma; as, "Worship thy Creator, God; and obey his Son, the Master, King, and Saviour of men."

c. The word brothers, when put: apposition with a proper name in a firm, is left unpointed; as, "Smith Brothers and Co." But when used, either in the singular or plural number, to convey the notion of another person, it is not in apposition, and must therefore be distinguished by the comma; as, "Smith, Brother, and Co."

d. Proper names, when inverted, are separated by a comma; as, "James, Thomas; Williamson, John;" meaning Thomas James and John Williamson.

e. After the word price, when immediately preceding the value of any commodity, the comma may be omitted; as, "Price $5," or "Price fifty cents."

f. A comma is put between two nouns or pronouns if used synonymously, or if the latter expresses an illustrative or an additional thought; as, "Force of voice is strength, energy; vivacity is life, animation."- "A son, John, was born after his father's death."

g. When a proper name is put after a phrase in apposition, the comma may be omitted; as, "The great orator Cicero was famed for many excellences." Unless where the noun is introduced by way of explanation or parenthesis; and, in such a case, it is preceded by a comma, and, in an unfinished clause, followed by the same point; as, "The wisest of the Jewish kings, Solomon, became a fool."

h. When the first of two nouns of the possessive case has the sign of possession, a comma should intervene between them; as, "The work will be found at Appleton's, the bookseller." But, if the possessive sign is omitted after the first noun, and put after the second, the comma may be dispensed with; as, "It will be seen at Putnam the publisher's." Should, however, this mode of writing be so constructed as to have, for the unmarked possessive, several names constituting a firm, a comma should be inserted before the noun ending with the s and apostrophe; as, "The young man is a clerk at Little, Brown, and Company, the publishers';" the awkwardness of the punctuation here arising from the clumsiness of the expression.

i. If a term, preceding a noun or a pronoun, is used absolutely, a comma is inserted only between them; as, "A trifling scholar, he heeds not the lessons of instruction."

j. When a pronoun of the second person immediately precedes a noun, a relative pronoun, or a word or phrase used for a noun, the comma is unnecessary between them; as, "Thou river, roll; ye who are aged, come; all ye high Powers." But, if the pronoun, as the nominative to a verb, or as the antecedent of a relative, is separated from them, or if it is put in the objective case, a comma should be put before and after the intervening term; as, "Thou, Father, markest the tears I shed." "What art thou, execrable shape, that darest advance?" "On thee, beloved, I wait."

k. When the latter of two nouns or phrases is predicated of the former, the comma is not required between them; as, "Plutarch calls

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lying the vice of slaves.". "The Romans thought Augustus Cæsar a god." -"I consider Dr. Johnson as an excellent moralist." So also if the subject spoken of be a pronoun; as, "The people elected him president of the United States."

ORAL EXERCISES.

Show how the following sentences exemplify the fourth Rule, in respect to the insertion or omission of commas : —

Friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near.
Mahomet was a native of Mecca, a city in Arabia.
The emperor Antoninus wrote an excellent work on morals.
The term 66 reason " has been variously defined.
Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, lived in a tub.

Bowditch the astronomer translated the "Méchanique Céleste."
Newton, the great mathematician, was very modest.
The butterfly, child of the summer, flutters in the sun.
Hope, the balm of life, soothes us under every misfortune.
Spenser the poet lived in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Art thou that traitor angel who first broke peace in heaven?
I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.

I, thy father-in-law Jethro, am come unto thee.

Say why, according to the Remarks (pp. 41, 42), commas are inserted or omitted in the following sentences:

The emperor Augustus was a patron of the fine arts.

The frigate "Jamestown" conveyed corn to the suffering Irish. God is a Father-God, a God of paternal love.

To thee we bow, Friend, Father, King of kings!

"Adjunct" is derived from adjunctum, addition, something added. Ease, rest, owes its deliciousness to toil.

William was slain; leaving one child, Alice.

The eloquent preacher Massillon was a Frenchman.

The author of " Paradise Lost," Milton, was a noble-minded man.

At Thomson the hatter's store. At Thomson's, the hatter.

A brave boy, he could not injure others.

O Thou whose love can ne'er forget its offspring, man!

Ye powers and spirits of this nethermost abyss.

Thou, Lord, art the life and light of all this wondrous world.

All agree in designating Howard a philanthropist.

EXERCISE TO BE WRITTEN.

Insert commas where, according to pages 41-43, they are required :

In Greek, the word "poet" denotes a maker a creator. (Rule, 1.; and Remarks a, f.)

The apostle John was peculiarly beloved by his divine Master Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world. (Rule, and Remark b.)

The capital of Turkey Constantinople is finely situated on the European side of the Bosphorus. (Last of Remark g.)

General Washington the first president of the United States was a true patriot a genuine lover of his country. (Rule, and Remark b.) Marcus Aurelius Antoninus says, "Often return to your true mother philosophy." (Remark b, first portion; and Remark ƒ.)

Much stress was laid upon pronunciation delivery by the most eloquent of all orators Demosthenes. (Remark f, and last of g.) London the capital of Great Britain contains nearly three millions of inhabitants. (Rule, § II.)

A great and gloomy man the king sat upon the throne of his ancestors. (Remark i.)

I recommend the reading of good books as a source of improvement and delight. (Remark k.)

The first expedition of Columbus was fitted out by John of Anjou Duke of Calabria. (Rule, § II.; and Remark b.)

O Thou who hast at thy command the hearts of all men in thy hand! (First of Remark j.)

I Artaxerxes the king decree that whatsoever Ezra the priest the scribe of the law shall require, &c. (Rule, and Remark b.)

You blocks! you stones! you worse than senseless things! you hard hearts! you cruel men of Rome! (First of Remark j.) And, when the angel Death stands by, be thou my God my helper nigh. (Rule, Remark b, and last of j.)

When, as returns this solemn day, man comes to meet his Maker God. (Last of Remark b.)

The world-famed dramatist Shakspeare lived in the reign of the greatest of English queens Elizabeth. (Remark g.)

Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. (Rule, § II.)

In the firm of Graham Brother and Co. there are three persons in partnership, James Graham, his younger brother, and John Jones; but I do not know how many there are in the firm of Kennedy Brothers, whether there be two or more. (Remark c.)