LESSON V.

CAPITALIZATION.

Capitals are used in the following cases:

1. The first word of a sentence.

2. The first word of every line of poetry.

3. Nouns personified; as, "Come, gentle Spring."

a. The chief parts of a compound; as,

"Alexander the Great."

"New York,"

b. The names of the months and the days of the week. c. All names of the Deity; as, "The Supreme Ruler," "The Most High." Practice varies in the case of pronouns. d. All the names of the Bible and of its books. If the Bible is thought of merely as a book, a small letter is used; as," He sold bibles and other books."

e. The names of the cardinal points, except when used to express mere direction; as, "He went north."

f. Titles of honor, respect, or office when joined to a proper name of which they really form a part; as, "It was Queen Elizabeth that beheaded Lord Burleigh."

g. Common nouns that are closely joined with proper names; as, "The Lake of the Woods," "The Chesapeake Bay," ""Simcoe Street."

h. Any word that for the time being is used as a proper name; as, "The Wars of the Roses," "The Declaration of Independence."

i. Every adjective derived from a proper name; as, Roman,

American. Adjectives that have assumed a general meaning are written with a small letter; as, mercurial, herculean.

"When a

6. Words that have some special importance; as, woman is introduced into the Director's presence." A capital is not used when the words have their ordinary application; as, "He is a director in the company."

7. The first word of a direct quotation; as, "He inquired, Where did your father live?'" If the quotation falls in with :he grammatical construction of the sentence, a small letter is used. 8. The principal words in the name of a book or in the title or heading when in the body of discourse; "The Position and Influence of Lord Byron's Poetry."

9. The titles of books, the headings, chapters, and sections are generally written entirely in capitals. This is on the principle that in fancy printing capitals are placed wherever they add to the

appearance.

10. To denote emphasis; as, "He cried out, 'Strike! Strike! STRIKE! STRIKE!'"

II. With the first word in each part of an enumeration when the numbers are followed by a period. If the numbers are enclosed in parentheses, small letters are used.

12. The first word of a sentence embodied in another sentence; as, "The question is, Who will be elected?"

13. To begin the real statement after an introductory word; as, "Resolved, That we, etc."

14. In some special cases in letters. See below.

15. Any important word that is repeated in the body of disThis rule should not be carried too far.

course.

EXERCISE IX.

CAPITALIZATION.

DIRECTION.. Write out the following, with capitals in the proper places. Give reasons.

1. mr. partridge, secretary of the discharged prisoner's aid society.

2. ben-hur: or, the days of the messiah, by lew wallace.

3. richard whately, lord archbishop of london, and sir joshua jebb, k.c.b.

4. when it was said to anaxagorus, "the athenians have condemned you to die," he said again, " and nature them."

5. the first works from caxton's press and "the poems of chaucer."

"the were

6. and freedom shrieked when kosciusko fell.

game of chess"

7. The poem is entitled english bards and scotch reviewers. 8. The lake of the woods is a fine sheet of water.

9. The committee drew up the following by-laws: 1. that no cattle be allowed on the streets; 2. that the lights be put out at midnight.

10. The queen of sheba came to see king solomon's glory.

II. The last book of the old testament is called the book of malachi.

12. He looked north and said, "the north is to be our future home."

13. On coming back to maine on tuesday, november the 3d, he found himself without a dollar in his pocket.

14. An invitation was sent to william, prince of orange, to come and take the english throne.

15. He entered the lists against luther with an "assertion of the seven sacraments," for which he was rewarded with the title of" defender of the faith."

16. He travelled from new hampshire to nova scotia.

17. We have had our "revolutions of eighty-eight" officially called " glorious"; and our other revolutions not yet called

glorious.

18. Alas! for the rarity of christian charity in the old world. 19. He set out on a friday early in the month of april and travelled due north, hoping to reach the north pole.

20. The question, "whence are we and whither are we going?" has re-echoed all down the ages.

21. The works of the creator of the universe could not have existed without the wisdom of a creator.

LESSON VI.

PUNCTUATION.

Punctuation is a method of indicating the construction of a sentence. Hence the grand rule that should guide us in punctuating is: Understand the construction, and then punctuate so as to show it.

Marks Used. The principal marks used in punctuation are:The Comma (,), the Semi-colon (;), the Colon (:), the Dash (−), the Period (.), the Interrogation Point (?), the Exclamation Point (!), the Curves [()], the Caret (^).

The Comma is used:

1. To isolate

THE COMMA.

a. The nominative absolute; as, "That finished, our duty is done."

6. The nominative of address; as, "O Grave, where is thy victory?"

c. Words in apposition; as, "Brutus, the last of the Romans, was noble."

d. The relative clause when not restrictive; as, “The sun, which shines above, is golden."

e. Intermediate expressions; as, "The sun, with its planets, is but a small portion of the universe."

f. Dependent clauses; as, "Uriah proceeded, as I sat gazing at him, with this thought in mind.”

g. Phrases and single words used parenthetically; such as then, therefore, however, too, indeed, perhaps, surely, finally, namely, in short, in fact, in brief, no doubt, as it were, to be sure, of course, after all, to be brief; as, "Poetry has, nevertheless, a refining influence."

Some of these words may be used with an adverbial force only and then take no comma; as, "However wise he may be."

h. Adverbs or phrases of order; as, “In the first place, let

us deal with the spiritual."

2. Between pairs of words or phrases; as, "The rich and poor, the weak and strong, have one common father."

3. When a word is omitted; as, "To err is human; to forgive, divine." "Alfred was brave, pious, and patriotic."

It should be observed that the comma is inserted before the and connecting the last of the series. Sometimes when the parts are emphatic, the comma and the and are both inserted.

4. To separate the parts of a compound sentence, if they are simple in construction; as, "We can tolerate the first line, but the allusion to trees is unsatisfactory."

If the parts are short and closely connected in sense, no comma is needed.

5. To set off inverted phrases and clauses standing at the beginning of a sentence; as, "To obtain an education, he was willing to make sacrifices."

The comma is often omitted in short sentences.

6. To separate adjectives qualifying the same noun, except when the second adjective and the noun form a complex idea, as in "His red right hand."

7. Before short direct quotations; as, "The poet says, 'Be wise to-day.'"

8. Before the predicate when the subject is long, or when it has several qualifying words or phrases; as, "Any one that refuses to earn an honest livelihood, is not an object of charity."

9. To set off negative expressions, used by way of contrast; as, "The king, but not his councillors, was present."

10. Before a clause or phrase that is used loosely or appositively; as, "There was no remains of the clown about him, save and except the redness of his cheeks."