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IV. The INDEX, or HAND, points out a passage to which special attention is directed; as, "

will be promptly and carefully attended to."

All orders

V. THREE STARS, placed in this form [***], or N.B., the initials of nota bene, "mark well," are sometimes used for the same purposes as the index.

The characters explained in the two preceding paragraphs are employed chiefly in cards, handbills, advertisements, and catalogues; seldom in books.

VI. The CARET [A] is used, only in manuscript, to show where a letter or a word was accidentally omitted, but which has afterwards been placed over the line; as,

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VII. The BRACE [] is used to connect a number of words with one common term; as,

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This character is often found serviceable in lists of articles and in tabular matter, where the object is to save room, or to avoid repetition. The inside of a brace should, as in the example, be turned to that part of the matter which contains most lines.

The brace was once generally used to bind together a triplet, or three lines of poetry having the same rhyme; but this practice is becoming obsolete.

A brace is sometimes put in the side-margin of a page to separate dates, when placed there, from the text.

VIII. MARKS OF ELLIPSIS are formed by means of a long dash, or of a succession of points or stars **** ], of various lengths; and are used to indicate the omission of letters in a word, of words in a sentence, or of sentences in a paragraph;

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1. Cs is not uniformly distinguished for dignity, wisdom, patriotism or philanthropy.

2. If the great have no other glory than that of their ancestors; if their titles are their only virtues,. ..... their birth dishonors them, even in the

estimation of the world.

*

3. Some persons believe that there are no longer any duties to be fulfilled beyond the tomb; and there are but few who know how to be friends to the dead. * The name of our friends, their glory, their family, have still claims on our affection, which it would be guilt not to feel. They should live still in our heart by the emotions which subsist there; in our memory, by our frequent remembrance of them; in our voice, by our eulogiums; in our conduct, by our imitation of their virtues.

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In the first example, " C―s" is substituted for Congress; in the second, a single clause is omitted; and, in the third, several sentences are left out by the transcriber. Periods are considered much less offensive to the eye than asterisks.

To avoid repetitions in catalogues, a dash is sometimes used instead of the word or words iminediately above; as,

Pope's Works, with Notes and Illustrations, 6 vols. calf.

Rape of the Lock, and other Poems.

For other elliptical uses of the dash, see pp. 175, 191, and 195.

IX. LEADERS are dots or periods, used in contents and indexes of books, and in similar matter, to lead the eye to the end of a line, for the completion of the

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X. ACCENTS.

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There are three marks, termed

Accents, placed over the vowels; namely, the Acute [ ́], as in fáncy; the Grave [`], as in fàvor; and the Circumflex [^], as in fâll. The acute accent commonly represents a sharp, the grave a depressed,

and the circumflex a broad sound.

The grave accent is sometimes placed in verse over the vowel 6, to show that it must be fully pronounced; as, cankerèd, Dircè. See p. 199, Remark g.

These characters are also used to denote the inflections of the voice, according to the system invented by Walker; and for various purposes in the Latin, French, and other languages.

XI. MARKS OF QUANTITY. There are other three marks, indicating the pronunciation, which are sometimes classed among the accents; namely, the Long [], as in rosy; the Breve, or Short [], as in fõlly; and the Diæresis [ ̈], as in aërial.

The diæresis is usually placed over the latter of two vowels, and denotes that they are to be pronounced separately.

XII. The CEDILLA is a mark resembling a comma, placed under the letter f, when it has the sound of s before a or o, in words taken from the French; as, façade.

XIII. THE TILDE [] is an accentual mark, placed over n in Spanish to give that letter a liquid sound; as, señor, sir.

If great accuracy is required, all such words should be thus printed when occurring in English composition.

XIV. MARKS OF REFERENCE. The Asterisk, or Star[], the Obelisk, or Dagger [t], the Double Dagger [], the Section [§], Parallel Lines [ ], and the Paragraph [¶], are used, in the order here presented, when references are made to observations or notes in the margin.

When references are numerous, the above marks, when they have been all used in one and the same page, and others are required, should be doubled or trebled; as, **, ttt.

But, for purposes of reference, many authors prefer lowercase Italic letters or Arabic figures, enclosed by marks of parenthesis (a) or (1): some using the letters throughout the alphabet, or the figures as far as 10 or 100 inclusive, then beginning again with (a) or (1); and others commencing each page with the first letter or figure.

As, however, all the above marks have a rather clumsy appearance, particularly when they often occur in the same page, it has, in more recent times, been regarded as an improvement to use, in their order, letters or figures of a smaller size, technically called, from their standing above the line, Superiors; as, a or1. If the notes are placed in the margin, it is recommended that the letter a or figure be the first reference of every page in which notes occur; but that figures, and not letters, be employed in regular succession, as far as required, if the notes are introduced at the end of the volume.

The ASTERISK is used in some dictionaries to note, either that a word is of Greek origin, or is distinguished by some other peculiarity; and the OBELISK, that a word or phrase is barbarous or obsolete. In Roman-Catholic church-books, the asterisk is used to divide each verse of a psalm into two parts, showing where the responses begin. The obelisk is inserted, instead of the proper square cross, in those places of the printed prayers and benedictions where the priest is to make the sign of the cross. It is also used in the briefs of the pope, and in the mandates of archbishops and bishops, who put this symbol immediately before the signature of their names.

The mark termed the SECTION [§] is sometimes employed, as in Locke's " Essay on the Human Understanding," to divide books or chapters into smaller portions; and that called the PARAGRAPH [¶} occurs frequently in the authorized version of the Bible.

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CHAPTER VI.

GENERAL EXERCISES,

PUNCTUATED ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN IN THE

PRESENT WORK.

THE following Exercises are presented in the hope, that they will be not only perused as a source of pleasure and general improvement, but also studied with relation to the art which they are meant to exemplify. This can be done in one of two ways: The reader may, in passing from one sentence to another, assign, either mentally or to a teacher, the reasons for the punctuation adopted, by referring to the rules or the remarks which are laid down in the preceding pages as applicable to each separate case. Or he may write out the exercises, one at a time, without any points whatever; and, in the course of a day or two, take his transcribed copy, and, without aid from the book, insert such marks as he thinks will best exhibit the grammatical structure of the composition, the connections or relations subsisting between the various parts of its sentences, and the sense which the author intended to express. He may then compare his manuscript with the print, in order to ascertain in what respects they correspond or differ; introducing the

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