A Practical Syftem of Rhetorical Punctuation.

BEFORE we give fuch directions for paufing,

or dividing a fentence, as will, in fome meafure, enable us to avoid the errors of common punctuation, and to point for ourselves, it will be neceffary to inquire into the nature of a sentence, and to distinguish it into its different kinds: for this purpose, I fhall make ufe of the words of a very ingenious author*, who has lately written on the Philofophy of Rhetoric: Complex fentences,' fays this author, are of two kinds; firft, they are either periods, or fentences of a loofer compofition, for which the language doth not furnish us with a particular name.

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'A period is a complex fentence, wherein the meaning remains fufpended, till the whole is finished: the connection, confequently, is fo close between the beginning and the end, as to give rife to the name period, which fignifies circuit; the following is such a sentence:' "Corruption could not spread with fo much "fuccefs, though reduced into fyftem, and "though fome minifters, with equal impu

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dence and folly, avowed it, by themfelves "and their advocates, to be the principal ex"pedient by which they governed, if a long " and almost unobserved progreffion of caufes " and effects did not prepare the conjuncture." Bolingbroke's Spirit of Patriotism.

The criterion of a period is this: If you ftop anywhere before the end, the preceding words

Campbell's Philof. of Rhetoric, vol. ii. p. 339.

⚫ will not form à fentence, and therefore cannot convey any determined fenfe.

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This is plainly the cafe with the above example: the first verb being could, and not can; the potential, and not the indicative mood, fhews that the fentence is hypothetical, and requires to its completion, fome claufe beginning with if, unless, or fome other con'ditional particle; and after you are come to the conjunction, you find no part where you can stop before the end. An example of a complex fentence that is not a period, I fhall produce from the fame performance :'

One party had given their whole attention, "during feveral years, to the project of enrich"ing themselves, and impoverishing the reft of "the nation; and, by thefe and other means, of establishing their dominion under the govern

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ment, and with the favour of a family who "were foreigners; and therefore might believe "that they were established on the throne, by "the good will and ftrength of this party alone." The criterion of fuch loofe fentences is as 'follows: there will always be found in them one place at leaft before the end, at which if you make a ftop, the conftruction of the 'preceding part will render it a complete fentence; thus, in the example now given, whether you ftop at the word themfelves, at nation, at dominion, at government, or at foreigners, all which words are marked in the quotation in Italics, you will find you have 'read a perfect fentence.'

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This diftinction of a fentence into a period or compact fentence, and a loose fentence, does not feem to fatisfy this ingenious critic; and

he produces an example of a sentence of an intermediate fort, that is neither an entirely loofe fentence, nor a perfect period: this example, too, is taken from Lord Bolingbroke, where, fpeaking of the Eucharift, he fays: "The other inftitution has been fo difguifed by or"nament, and fo much directed in your church, "at least, to a different purpose from commemo"ration, that if the difciples were to affemble

at Easter in the chapel of his holiness, Peter "would know his fucceffor as little as Chrift "would acknowledge his vicar; and the reft "would be unable to guess what the ceremony

represented or intended." Though this fentence forms perfect fenfe at vicar, the critic affirms, that the fucceeding members are fo closely connected with the preceding, that they all together may be confidered as a period, or compact fentence.'

Here we find the former diftinction destroyed, and we are again to feek for fuch a definition of a fentence as will affure us what is a period or compact sentence, and what is a loose sentence; or, in other words, what members are neceffarily, and what are not neceffarily connected. In the first place we may obferve, that it is not the perfect fenfe, formed by the preceding members, that determines a fentence to be loofe; because fucceeding members may be fo neceffarily connected with those that precede, notwithstanding the preceding members form perfect fenfe, that both together may form but one period. Mr. Addison affords us an inftance of this, in the Spectator, N° 86: "Every one that speaks and reasons, is a grammarian "and a logician, though he may be utterly un

acquainted with the rules of grammar or logic as they are delivered in books and "fyftems."

If we finish this fentence at logician, we fhall find the sense perfect; and yet nothing can be more evident than that both the member which contains this word, and that which follows, are infeparably connected. It is not, therefore, the perfect sense which a member may form, that neceffarily detaches it from the reft; if, upon perufing the latter part of the sentence, we find it evidently contained in the idea of the former, they must both be infeparably connected the whole fentence, therefore, must be understood before we can pronounce upon the connection fubfifting between its parts.

But it may be demanded, what is the criterion of this connection; and how fhall we know, with certainty, whether the idea of the latter member is neceffarily contained in the former ? To this it may be anfwered, if the latter member modifies the former, or places it in a point of view different from what it appears in alone, we may pronounce the members neceffarily connected, and the fentence to be compact and periodic. In the last inftance, the first member, Every one that Speaks and reafons, is a grammarian and a logician; does not intend to affirm a fact which might be understood as defcriptive of the ftate of man, either with or without the attainments of grammar and logic; but it refers precifely to that state which has no fuch attainments, and thus is modified by the laft member, though he may be utterly unacquainted with the rules of grammar, or logic, as they are delivered in books and fyftems. The modification, therefore,

of the former member by the latter, is the criterion of fuch connection as forms a period or compact fentence.

It is on this principle that all fentences founded on an hypothefis, a condition, a conceffion, or exception, may be esteemed compact fentences or periods; for in these fentences we fhall find one part of the fentence modified by the other; and it may be affirmed of all other fentences, that whenever the conjunctions that connect their members together modify these members, the fentences they compofe are periodic; and that whenever the conjunctions only explain or add to the meaning of the members to which they are fubjoined, the fentences which these members compofe are loose fentences. It will be neceffary to explain this ob-" fervation by examples.

EXAMPLES.

A man fhould endeavour to make the sphere of his innocent pleafures as wide as poffible, that he may retire into them with fafety, and find in them fuch a fatisfaction as a wife man would not blush to take. Of this nature are thofe of the imagination, which do not require fuch a bent of thought as is neceffary to our more ferious employments, nor at the fame time fuffer the mind to fink into that negligence and remiffnefs, which are apt to accompany our more fenfual delights.-Spectator, N° 411.

In the first of these fentences we find the conjunction that modifies or reftrains the meaning of the preceding member; for it is not afferted: in general, and without limitation, that a man fhould make the fphere of his innocent pleafures as wide as poffible, but that he fhould do fo for the purpose of retiring into himself: these two members, therefore, are neceffarily connected, and might have formed a period or