understood. As, "thou art wiser than I [am."] "You are not so tall as I [am."] "You think him handsomer than [you think] me; and you love him more than [you love] me." In all other instances, if you complete the sentence in like manner, by supplying the part which is understood; the case of the latter noun, or pronoun, will be determined. Thus, "Plato observes, that God geometrizes: and the same thing was observed before by a wiser man than he;" that is, than he was. "It is well expressed by Plato; but more elegantly by Solomon than him;" that is, than by him.

Interjections in English have no government. Though they are usually attended with nouns in the nominative case, and verbs in the indicative mode; yet the case and mode are not influenced by them, but determined by the nature of the sentence.

PUNCTUATION.

PUNCTUATION is the art of marking in writing the several pauses, or rests, between sentences, and the parts of sentences, according to their proper quantity or proportion, as they are expressed in a just and accurate pronunciation.

As the several articulate sounds, the syllables and words, of which sentences consist, are marked by letters; so the rests and pauses, between sentences and their parts, are marked by points.

But, though the several articulate sounds are pretty fully and exactly marked by letters of known and determinate power; yet the several pauses which are used in a just pronunciation of discourse, are very imperfectly expressed by points.

For the different degrees of connection between the several parts of sentences, and the different pauses in a just pronunciation, which express those degrees of connection according to their proper value, admit of great variety; but the whole number of points which we have to express this variety, amounts only to four.

Hence it is, that we are under a necessity of expressing pauses of the same quantity, on different occasions, by different points; and more frequently, of expressing pauses of different quantity by the same points.

So that the doctrine of punctuation must needs be very imperfect: few precise rules can be given which will hold without exception in all cases; but much must be left to the judgment and taste of the writer.

On the other hand, if a greater number of marks were invented to express all the possible different pauses of pronunciation; the doctrine of them would be very perplexed and difficult, and the use of them would rather embarrass than assist the reader.

It remains, therefore, that we be content with the rules of punctuation, laid down with as much exactness as the nature of the subject will admit: such as may serve for a general direction, to be accommodated to different occasions: and to be supplied, where deficient, by the writer's judgment.

The several degrees of connection between sentences, and between their principal constructive parts, rhetoricians have considered F

under the following distinctions, as the most obvious and remarkable: the period, colon, semicolon, and comma.

The period is the whole sentence, complete in itself, wanting nothing to make a full and perfect sense, and not connected in construction with a subsequent sentence.

The colon, or member, is a chief constructive part, or greater division of a sentence.

The semicolon, or half-member, is a less constructive part, or subdivision, of a sentence or member.

A sentence or member is again subdivided into commas, or segments; which are the least constructive parts of a sentence or member, in this way of considering it; for the next subdivision would be the resolution of it into phrases and words.

The grammarians have followed this division of the rhetoricians, and have appropriated to each of these distinctions its mark, or point; which takes its name from the part of the sentence, whicta it is employed to distinguish; as follows:

The Period

The Colon

The Semicolon

The Comma

is thus marked

Other marks used in writing are

The point of Interrogation at the end of a question; as, who are you?

The point of Admiration or exclamation; as strange! alas for you!

The Parenthesis, when in the middle of a) sentence is introduced a phrase, not necessary to the sense, nor affecting the construction; as

If there's a power above us;

(And that there is, all nature cries aloud

()

In all her works) he must delight in virtue.

Of the art of grammatical resolution, or accounting for the several parts of speech in a sentence, usually termed parsing, the following example will be sufficient for the reader's information.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Our Father who art in heaven! hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us; and lead us not into tempta tion, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Our a pronoun, first person plural, from the singular I; Father a substantive noun, masculine gender and singular number; who relative pronoun, also singular and masculine, to agree with Father; [In our translation of the New Testament we have which in this passage of the Lord's prayer instead of who: but which is the

acuter gender of the pronoun, and consequently ought not to be applied to any person human or divine;] art, the second person singular of the present tense, indicative mode, of the auxiliary verb to be; in a preprosition; heaven a substantive noun, in the objective case, governed by the preposition in; hallowed, participle past of the passive voice, of the active verb to hallow; be the third person singular, of the present tense of the subjunctive and imperative modes of the substantive verb to be: hallowed be is equivalent to let thy name be hallowed; or may thy name be hallowed, reverenced, and held sacred: thy a pronoun of the second person singular, to agree with the following substantive kingdom; come the third person singular, of the present tense of the imperative and subjunctive modes, of the active verb to come; thy kingdom come is equivalent to may or let thy kingdom come: thy a pronoun possessive as before; will a substantive noun, neuter gender and singular number, nominative case; be a verb as before; done the participle past of the active verb to do; in a preposition; earth a substantive noun, neuter gender, singular number, and objective case; as a conjunction; it a pronoun, neuter and singular, agreeing with will; is third person singular, of the present tense, indicative mode, of the substantive verb to be, agreeing with the nominative it;

a preposition; heaven a substantive singular, neuter gender, objective case governed by in; give second person singular, imperative mode, of the active verb to give; the nominative thou agreeing with it being suppressed, as give thou or do thou give; us the personal pronoun I in the objective case governed by the active verb give; this an adjective pronoun; day a substantive noun, singular number, neuter gender; our a possessive pronoun; daily a derivative adjective formed from the substantive day, agreeing in all circumstances with the following substantive bread, of the neuter gender, singular number and objective case, governed by the preceding verb give; and a conjunction; forgive, for forgive thou or do thou forgive, second person singular, imperative mode, of the active verb to forgive, placed in similar circumstances with the foregoing verb give, being connected with it by the copulative conjunction and; us pronoun in the objective case, governed by forgive; our pronoun; trespasses substantive noun, plural number, neuter gender, objective case, agreeing with our, and governed by forgive; as a conjunction; we pronoun, nominative plural of I; forgive, first person plural, present tense, indicative mode, agreeing with we; them pronoun, plural number, objective case; who relative pronoun, agreeing with the antecedent them, in being masculine or feminine, and plural, but not in case; for who is here the nominative to the following verb trespass; [Instead of who the pronoun that is very commonly but erroneously employed; for who is appliable to persons, but that belongs properly to things without life; trespass third person plural, present tense, indicative mode, active voice of verb to trespass, agreeing with the pronoun before it who; against a preposition; us objective case, plural of personal pronoun I; and conjunction; lead for lead thou, or do thou lead, second person singular, imperative mode of

active verb to lead; us pronoun, governed in the objective case by lead; not an adverb; into preposition; temptation objective case of substantive noun, governed by preposition into; but a disjunctive conjunction; deliver second person singular, imperative of verb to deliver; us pronoun; from preposition; evil an adjective noun here used substantively, and equivalent to the evil thing, the evil one, evil things in general; for here used in the place of because, a conjunction; thine a pronoun; is third person singular, present of the indicative of the substantive verb to be; the definite article: kingdom substantive noun; power, glory, substantive nouns; and a conjunction: amen a Hebrew word indeclinable, signifying properly truth, verity, and thence employed in an abridged form to express, may what has gone before really and truly be brought about! In the beginning of a sentence, in the New Testament, amen signifies of a truth, truly, verily, indeed.

In the foregoing exercise, a certain part of the verb called the imperative mode, is repeatedly mentioned. This term may surprise the student, as being employed in language denoting not commands, but the most submissive requests and supplications. The reason of this is, that, in the Greek original of the New Testament, as well as in the Latin and other later translations, words are employed to express the humble petitions of the Lord's prayer, which on other common occasions, serve to convey a peremptory command. Thus give me the bread, may signify a master's orders to his servant; while in the cases now under consideration, give us our bread can signify no more than we humbly pray thee to give us our necessary food and other comforts. The term imperative therefore is to be taken in its technical and grammatical, and not in its proper literal meaning.

ON READING AND SPEAKING,

Many arguments have been employed to convince the world of a very plain truth, that to be able to speak well is an accomplishment not less useful than ornamental. The importance of a good manner of delivering either one's own sentiments or those of others, must be sufficiently obvious: and every man must allow it to be of some consequence, that what he has occasion to do every hour, ought to be done with propriety. Every private company, and every public assembly will afford opportunites of remarking the difference between a just and graceful manner of delivery, and one faulty and unnatural. The great difficulty however is, not to prove that to be able to read and speak are desireable acquirements, but to point out a practicable and easy way, by which these accomplishments may be acquired.

To follow nature is certainly the fundamental law of good speaking and without a constant regard to this law, all other rules will, instead of proper elocution, produce only unnatural and affected rant and declamation. Judging from some unlucky specimens of modern studied eloquence, not a few accurate observers have concluded that to follow nature is in fact the only rule to be laid

down; that all artificial rules are at best useless; and that good sense and a cultivated taste are the only requisites to form a good reader or speaker. But in the art of speaking, just as in the art of living, general rules are of little use, until they are unfolded and applied to particular cases: the following plain rules may therefore be of service to the person who is desirous of becoming a correct and graceful reader and speaker.

Rule 1st. Let your articulation be distinct and deliberate.

A good articulation consists in giving a clear and full utterance to the several sounds, simple aud complex: and much pains is often necessary to become sensible, as well as to gain the mastery of those faults which, although often ascribed to some defect in the organs of speech, are perhaps very generally the consequence of inattention, indolence, or bad example. Almost all persons who have not studied the art of reading and speaking, are apt to utter their words so rapidly, that it is impossible for themselves to place, or for a hearer to perceive the proper stress and accent by which the leading words and syllables in a phrase ought to be distinguished. Till you can read slowly and distinctly, aim at nothing more ornamental.

Learn to speak slow, all other graces

Will follow in their proper places.

Rule 2nd. Let your pronunciation be bold and forcible.

An insipid flatness and languor are faults in reading almost universal: and even public speakers by profession, too often suffer the words to drop from their lips, with an utterance so faint and feeble, that they appear neither to feel, nor even to understand what they say, and certainly to be actuated by no very anxious desire that it should be felt or even understood by those who hear them. This is a fundamental fault: a speaker without energy is no better than a lifeless statue: he is even worse; for from a statue we expect no discourse.

In order to acquire a forcible manner of pronouncing your words, accustom yourself, while reading, to draw in as much air as your lungs can contain with ease, that you may have abundance of breath at command, to give force and life to your utterance. It will be of great service to read aloud in the open air, keeping the body as much as possible in an erect posture. Let all the consonants be expressed with a full impulse of the breath and action of the organs engaged in their formation; and let every vowel have its full and bold utterance. In observing this rule however you must take special care not to run into an opposite extreme of loud and boisterous vociferation. This fault is most commonly found among those who, in contempt and despite of all rule and propriety, are determined to be heard and to command attention. It is of such speakers as these that Shakspeare says "they offend the judicious hearer to the soul, by tearing a passion to rags, to very tatters, to