For example, in the following lines from the Rape of the Lock:

Of these the chief the care of nations own,

And guard with arms divine the British throne.

Though the melody of the verse inclines us strongly to pause at arms, yet the adjective divine, immediately succeeding, forbids it. Nay, if the line Lord Kaims produces to prove we may pause between the adjective and the substantive in an inverted order

For thee the fates, severely kind, ordain

If this line, I say, had been constructed in this man

ner,

For thee the fates severe, have this ordain'd,

it is evident no pause could be admitted between the substantive fates and the adjective severe, though they are here in their inverted order; it is not then merely the adjective being placed after the substan tive which makes it separable from it, but the adjective being joined by other words, which, when the substantive is understood, are more immediately connected with each other than with the substantive itself.

If these observations have any solidity, we may perceive how few are the grammatical connections which absolutely refuse a suspension of pronunciation, for the sake of breathing, where precision or energy require it: it is certainly to be presumed, that the breath of every person is nearly proportioned to the forcible pronunciation of so many words together as are necessary to preserve the sense unbroken; the contrary, however, would often be the case, if the integrity of the sense depended on the common rules for placing the comma. Let those,

however, who can pronounce a long sentence easily and forcibly, provided they preserve the pauses neces sary to the sense, take breath as seldom as they please. I have rather consulted the infirmities than the perfections of my fellow creatures; by endeavouring to point out those resources which are necessary to the weak, without imposing them as rules upon the strong;-Clausulas enim, says Cicero, atque interpuncta verborum anima interclusio atque angustia spiritus adtulerunt. De Orat. Lib. iii.

But from studying the human voice, and not relying implicitly on the assertions of the ancients, we perceive the weakness of that common observation, that long sentences require a greater quantity of breath, and a much more forcible exertion in the lungs, than such sentences as are short. The folly of this opinion must evidently appear to those who have taken notice how often we may pause in a long sentence; and it will be shown hereafter, that the sense of a sentence depends much less on the pause than on the inflexion of voice we adopt; and that, provided we pause in the proper place, and preserve the proper tone and inflexion of the voice, the sense runs no risk on account of the multiplicity or duration of the pauses.

To reduce what has been said into something like a system, we shall endeavour to bring together sen tences in every variety of construction, and mark, as carefully as possible, such pauses, as are necessary to pronounce them with clearness, force, and variety.

A Practical System of Rhetorical Punctuation.

BEFORE We give such directions for pausing, or dividing a sentence, as will, in some measure, enable us to aviod the errors of common punctuation, and to point for ourselves, it will be necessary to inquire into the nature of a sentence, and to distinguish it into its different kinds: for this purpose, I shall make use of the words of a very ingenious author,* who has lately written on the Philosophy of Rhetorick: 'Complex sentences,' says this author, are of two 'kinds; first, they are either periods, or sentences of 'a looser composition, for which the language doth 'not furnish us with a particular name.

A period is a complex sentence, wherein the 'meaning remains suspended, till the whole is finish'ed the connection, consequently, is so close be'tween the beginning and the end, as to give rise to 'the name period, which signifies circuit; the fol'lowing is such a sentence:

"Corruption could not spread with so much success, though reduced into system, and though some "ministers, with equal impudence and folly, avowed "it, by themselves and their advocates, to be the principal expedient by which they governed, if a long "and almost unobserved progression of causes and "effects did not prepare the conjuncture."

Bolingbroke's Spirit of Patriotism.

'The criterion of a period is this: If you stop any 'where before the end, the preceding words will not form a sentence, and therefore cannot convey any * determined sense.

'This is plainly the case with the above example : the first verb being could, and not can; the poten

Campbell's Philos, of Rhetorick, vol. ii. p. 839.

" 'tial, and not the indicative mood, shews that the ⚫ sentence is hypothetical, and requires to its comple'tion some clause beginning with if, unless, or some 'other conditional 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 sentence that is not a period, I shall produce from 'the same performance :'

“One party had given their whole attention, dur"ing several years, to the project of enriching themselves, and impoverishing the rest of the nation; "and, by these and other means, of establishing their "dominion under the government, and with the fa"vour of a family who were foreigners; and there"fore might believe that they were established on the "throne, by the good will and strength of this party "alone."

'The criterion of such loose sentences is as follows: 'there will always be found in them one place at least 'before the end, at which if you make a stop, the 'construction of the preceding part will render it a complete sentence; thus, in the example now giv'en, whether you stop at the word themselves, at "nation, at dominion, at government, or at foreigners, 'all which words are marked in the quotation in Ital'icks, you will find you have read a perfect sentence.'

This distinction of a sentence into a period or compact sentence, and a loose sentence, does not seem to satisfy this ingenious critick; and he produces an example of a sentence of an intermediate sort, that is neither an entirely loose sentence, nor a perfect period: this example, too, is taken from Lord Bolingbroke, where, speaking of the Eucharist, he says: "the "other institution has been so disguised by ornament, "and so much directed in your church, at least, to a "different purpose from commemoration, that if the disciples were to assemble at Easter in the chapel of his holiness, Peter would know his successor

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"as little as Christ would acknowledge his vicar; "and the rest would be unable to guess what the ceremony represented or intended." Though this sentence forms perfect sense at vicar, the critick affirms, that the succeeding members are so closely connected with the preceding, that they all togeth'er may be considered as a period, or compact sen

tence.'

Here we find the former distinction destroyed, and we are again to seek for such a definition of a sentence as will assure us what is a period or compact sentence, and what is a loose sentence; or, in other words, what members are necessarily, and what are not necessarily connected. In the first place we may observe, that it is not the perfect sense, formed by the preceding members, that determines a sentence to be loose: because succeeding members may be so necessarily connected with those that precede, notwithstanding the preceding members form perfect sense, that both together may form one period. Mr. Addison affords us an instance of this, in the Spectator, No. 86: "Every one that speaks and reasons, "is a grammarian and a logician, though he may be "utterly unacquainted with the rules of grammar or logick as they are delivered in books and systems.” If we finish this sentence at logician, we shall 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 inseparably connected. It is not, therefore, the perfect sense which a member may form, that necessarily detaches it from the rest; if, upon perusing the latter part of the sentence, we find it evidently contained in the idea of the former, they must both be inseparably connected: the whole sentence, therefore, must be understood before we can pronounce upon the connection Consisting between its parts.