RULE II.

THE CLAUSES OF A LONG SENTENCE.

A dash may be used between the several clauses of a long sentence, when they constitute a series, the portions of which commence with the same word; or when these form the nominative to a verb; and after a long member, when it leads to an important conclusion.

CLASSIFIED EXAMPLES.

1. SERIES OF CLAUSES COMMENCING WITH THE SAME WORD. "You shall go home directly, Le Fevre," said my uncle Toby, "to my house and we'll send for a doctor to see what's the matterand we'll have an apothecary - and the corporal shall be your and I'll be your servant, Le Fevre."

nurse

The

2. SERIES OF CLAUSES, THE NOMINATIVE TO A VERB. noble indignation with which Emmett repelled the charge of treason against his country- the eloquent vindication of his name and his pathetic appeal to posterity, in the hopeless hour of condemnation, all these entered deeply into every generous bosom, and even his enemies lamented the stern policy that dictated his execution.

3. A LONG MEMBER, LEADING TO AN IMPORTANT CONCLUSION.When ambition practises the monstrous doctrine of millions made for individuals, their playthings, to be demolished at their caprice; sporting wantonly with the rights, the peace, the comforts, the existence of nations, as if their intoxicated pride would, if possible, make God's earth itself their football, is not the good man indignant?

REMARK 1.—In accordance with the principle laid down in page 46, the clauses of the sentence in No. 2 might with propriety be distinguished only by semicolons, and by a colon before the word all; but there cannot be any doubt, that the punctuation here adopted is much better calculated to assist the eye, and to develope the sense of these and similar passages, than if semicolons and the colon were employed, to the exclusion of the dash. REMARK 2. Some writers insert a comma or a semicolon, as well as a dash, between the clauses of such passages; but they are seldom necessary to bring out the sense, and may be dispensed with. Before the concluding member, however, where a greater distinction is requisite, as in examples 2 and 3, a comma may precede the dash; both points being regarded as equivalent to a colon, if the clauses were separated by semicolons.

EXERCISES.

-

Put the dashes in their respective places, according to the rule:— How many bright eyes grow dim! how many soft cheeks grow pale! how many lovely forms fade away into the tomb! and none can tell the cause that blighted their happiness. When I see the best of human beings unmoved by torture; meek, and calm, and forgiving, in their agonies, I forget the guilt which persecutes them, in my admiration of their virtue. · No matter in what language the stranger's doom may have been pronounced no matter what complexion, incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery, the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains, that burst from around him; and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible Genius of Universal Emancipation. The grasp

crow,

of a child's little hand around one of our fingers its mighty little when excited by the playfulness of its nurse its manful spring upon the little woolpack legs that refuse to bear its weight, are all traits of more or less pleasantness. Every step in the attainment of physical power every new trait of intelligence, as they one by one arise in the infantine intellect, like the glory of night, starting star by star into the sky, is hailed with a heart-burst of rapture and surprise, as if we had never known any thing so clever or so captivating before. The infinite importance of what he has to do the goading conviction that it must be done the utter inability of doing it the dreadful combination, in his mind, of both the necessity and incapacity the despair of crowding the concerns of an age into a moment the impossibility of beginning a repentance which should have been completed of setting about a peace which should have been concluded of suing for a pardon which should have been obtained, all these complicated concerns. - without strength, without time, without hope; with a clouded memory, a disjointed reason, a wounded spirit, undefined terrors, remembered sins, anticipated punishment, an angry God, an accusing conscience, all together intolerably augment the sufferings of a body which stands in little need of the insupportable burthen of a distracted mind to aggravate its torments.

RULE III.

EXPRESSIONS, PARTLY ELLIPTICAL, AND PARTLY

REPEATED.

Dashes should be used before expressions which repeat something from a preceding clause, and in which something is understood that was formerly expressed; as,

What! is it only in dreams that beauty and loveliness have beamed on me from the human countenance that I have heard tones of kindness, which have thrilled through my heart-that I have found sympathy in suffering, and a sacred joy in friendship? Are all the great and good men of past ages only dreams?

REMARK. In this beautiful passage from Channing, a dash is used respectively before the conjunction that, because it is repeated from the first clause; while the words, Is it only in dreams, are understood before the particle; the passage being mentally read thus: "Is it only in dreams that I have heard tones of kindness? Is it only in dreams that I have found sympathy in suffering?" &c.

EXERCISES.

Write the following sentences, and insert the dashes in their respective places:

You speak like a boy like a boy who thinks the old gnarled oak can be twisted as easily as the young sapling. The fate of the

Irish patriot made a deep impression on public sympathy; he was so young so intelligent so generous so brave so every thing that we are apt to like in a young man. - Is it not enough to see our friends die, and part with them for the remainder of our days to reflect that we shall hear their voices no more, and that they will never look on us again to see that turning to corruption which was but just now alive, and eloquent, and beautiful, with all the sensations of the soul? - The poor child of nature knew not the God of revelation; but the God of the universe he acknowledged in every thing around him. He beheld him in the star, that sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling in the sacred orb, that flamed on him from his midway throne in the flower, that snapped in the morning breeze in the lofty pine, that defied a thousand whirlwinds in the timid warbler, that never left its native grove in the fearless eagle, whose untired pinion was wet in clouds in the worm, that crawled at his foot and in his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of

that light to whose mysterious source he bent in humble, though blind adoration. - Believing, as I do, that we are on the eve of a great struggle that this is only the first battle between reason and power that you have now in your hands, committed to your trust, the only remains of free discussion in Europe, now confined to this kingdom; addressing you, therefore, as the guardians, &c.

RULE IV.

THE ECHO, OR WORDS REPEATED AS AN EXCLAMATION.

The dash is used before, what is termed by elocutionists, the echo; that is, before a word or phrase repeated in an interrogatory or an exclamatory manner.

EXAMPLES.

1. Shall I, who was born, I might almost say, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that most excellent general shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but of the Alps themselves—shall I compare myself with this half-year captain?—a captain! before whom should one place the two armies without their ensigns, I am persuaded he would not know to which of them he is consul.

2. Newton was a Christian; - Newton! whose mind burst forth from the fetters cast by nature on our finite conceptions;- Newton! whose science was truth, and the foundation of whose knowledge of it was philosophy; not those visionary and arrogant presumptions which too often usurp its name, but philosophy resting on the basis of mathematics, which, like figures, cannot lie; - Newton! who carried the line and rule to the utmost barrier of creation, and explored the principles by which, no doubt, all created matter is held together and exists.

REMARK 1. Before the reiteration of the words, shall I, in the first example, dashes are put without any other point, to show that what precedes is unfinished. After the expression, this half-year captain, a note of interrogation is placed, because the question terminates here.

REMARK 2. - In the second example, semicolons are introduced before the dashes, in order to separate with greater clearness the various members, some of which are divisible into clauses.

REMARK 3. After expressions of the kind under consideration, it is not always necessary to use the exclamatory or the interrogatory mark; as will be seen by referring to the exercises that follow.

REMARK 4.-The dash is also sometimes used before that which is merely an echo of the thought previously expressed; or, in other words, when the same idea is repeated in a different form in the same sentence; as, "There is nothing more prejudicial to the grandeur of buildings, than to abound in angles; a fault obvious in many, and owing to an inordinate thirst for variety, which, whenever it prevails, is sure to leave very little true taste.”. "Tully was the first who observed, that friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy, and dividing of our grief; — a thought in which he has been followed by all the essayers upon friendship that have written since his time."

EXERCISES.

In writing the sentences that follow, insert the dashes according to rule :

He hears the raven's cry; and shall he not hear, and will he not avenge, the wrongs that his nobler animals suffer; wrongs that cry out against man, from youth to age, in the city and in the field, by the way and by the fireside? - Still, what are you but a robber, a base, dishonest robber? - Can parliament be so dead to its dignity and duty as to give its sanction to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them? measures, my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing kingdom to scorn and contempt. - Man is led to the conception of a Power and an Intelligence superior to his own, and adequate to the production and maintenance of all that he sees in nature; a Power and Intelligence to which he may well apply the term infinite. It remains with you, then, to decide, whether that freedom at whose voice the kingdoms of Europe awoke from the sleep of ages, to run a career of virtuous emulation in every thing great and good the freedom which dispelled the mists of superstition, and invited the nations to behold their God; whose magic torch kindled the rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, and the flame of eloquence the freedom which poured into our lap, opulence and arts, and embellished life with innumerable institutions and improvements, till it became a theatre of wonders, it is for you to decide, whether this freedom shall yet survive, or be covered with a funeral pall, and wrapped in eternal gloom.—Sir, I should be much surprised to hear the motion made by the honourable gentleman who spoke last but one, opposed by any member in this house; a motion, founded in justice, supported by precedent and warranted by necessity. I cannot say, sir, which of these motives influence the advocates of the bill before us; a bill in which such cruelties are proposed as are yet unknown amongst the most savage nations.