"And now | I see || with eye | serene," | etc. "Now the hungry || lion | roars," | etc. "A per | fect wo | man, || no | bly planned," | etc. Prosody. After 2-feet. After 24 feet. | "King, fa|ther, Roy | al Dane : || O án | swer me." | After 3 feet. The position of the cæsura is variable with each line, within the above limits; and the grace and dignity of verses depend very much on a proper management of this pause. Its position is greatly varied in the following consecutive lines from "Paradise Lost :" "When straight behold the throne The consort of his reign; || and by them stood Orcus and Ades, || and the dreaded name Of Demo-gorgon! || Rumour next, and Chance And Discord || with a thousand various mouths." Bk. ii. The subjoined advice for versifiers is taken from POPE'S Essay on Criticism :— "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the Hear how Timotheus' varied lays surprise, And bid alternate passions fall and rise; L Prosody. Punctuation. Comma. Semicolon. Colon. Full Stop. Interrogation, excla dash. While at each change the son of Libyan Jove PUNCTUATION. Punctuation (punctum a point, Lat.) treats of the division of words into sentences, or parts of sentences, by means of stops, in order to show the logical connection between them. The stops used in English are the Comma, the Semicolon, the Colon, and the Full Stop. The Comma (that which is cut off, Greek) is the shortest stop, and is marked (,). The Semicolon (half a limb, Lat., Greek) is the next greater stop after the comma, and is marked (;). The Colon (a limb, Greek) is twice as great a pause as the semicolon, and is written (:). The Full Stop, or Period (a circuit, Greek), is the longest stop, and is written (.). Besides these stops, the Note of Interrogation, mation, and written (?), is used at the end of a direct question; the Note of Exclamation (!), to point out surprise; and the Dash (—), to mark a sudden transition. Rule I. RULE I. The subject, predicate, and simple adjuncts of a sentence are not separated from one another by any stop; as, "The thought of our past years in me doth breed "How many things by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection!" Merchant of Venice. Punctuation. RULE II.-Two nouns, pronouns, verbs, ad- Rule II. verbs, or adjectives, used without any qualifying words, and connected by the copulative or disjunctive conjunction, are not separated from each other by any stop; as, "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains." Midsummer Night's Dream. "Jones! when from Calais southward you and I Travelled on foot together."-WORDSWORTH. "Some neither can for wits nor critics pass, As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass."-POPE. "To be direct and honest is not safe."-Othello. "In every grove A gay or pensive tenderness prevailed." WORDSWORTH. RULE III.—A short subordinate sentence, a Rule III. phrase in the infinitive mood, a short participial, adjectival, or relative clause, immediately following the words to which it refers, is not separated from them by any stop; as, "What harmonious pensive changes Wait upon her as she ranges Round and through this pile of state." WORDSWORTH. MILTON. "To do aught good never will be our task." "The injustice done to an individual is sometimes of service to the public."-JUNIUS. "He is a soldier fit to stand by Cæsar And give direction."-Othello. Punctuation. Rule IV. Rule V. "A perfect judge will read each work of wit POPE. RULE IV. Long subordinate sentences, long participial and adjectival phrases, long relative clauses, are pointed off by commas; as, ""Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes "Some, valuing those of their own side or mind, POPE. WORDSWORTH. RULE V.-The nominative of address, the nominative and infinitive absolute, adverbs, conjunctions, or other words used elliptically, any phrases or dependent sentences placed out of their usual position in the main sentence, are pointed off by commas; as, "Haste, virgins, haste! and you, ye matrons grave, Go forth with rival youthfulness of mind." WORDSWORTH. "Nature well known, no prodigies remain."-POPE. "And, to conclude, The victory fell on us."-Macbeth. "Of manners gentle, of affections mild, In wit a man, simplicity a child."-POPE. "The senseless plea of right by Providence Was, by a flattering priest, invented since." DRYDEN. In short, however, moreover, indeed, when used alone are commas. Punctua nevertheless, tion. enclosed in RULE VI.-In elliptical co-ordinate sentences, Rule VI. when several nouns have reference to one verb, or when several verbs have reference to one noun or pronoun, they are separated by commas, whether connected by conjunctions or not; as, "But not to me returns MILTON. "For interest, envy, pride, and strife, are banished hence."-THOMSON. "So fails, so languishes, grows dim, and dies, "So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, "I saw an intermingled pomp of vale and hill, RULE VII.-Co-ordinate sentences, which are Rule VII. perfectly independent of one another in grammatical structure, if connected by a pronoun or conjunction, are separated by a semicolon; but, if there is not a pronoun or a conjunction, then by a colon; as, |