The Grammar of English Grammars Part 166

2. "Ah! what avails * * * * * * * * *

All that art, fortune, enterprise, can bring, If envy, scorn, remorse, or pride, the bosom wring?"--_Id._.

3. "Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible; Thou, stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless."--_Shak_.

4. "She plans, provides, expatiates, triumphs there."--_Young_.

5. ----"So eagerly the Fiend O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."--_Milton_.

RULE IV.--ONLY TWO WORDS.

When only two words or terms are connected by a conjunction, they should not be separated by the comma; as, "It is a _stupid and barbarous_ way to extend dominion by arms; for true power is to be got by _arts and industry_"--_Spectator_, No. 2.

"_Despair and anguish_ fled the struggling soul."--_Goldsmith._

EXCEPTION I.--TWO WORDS WITH ADJUNCTS.

When the two words connected have several adjuncts, or when one of them has an adjunct that relates not to both, the comma is inserted; as, "I shall spare no pains to make their instruction agreeable, and their diversion useful."--_Spectator_, No. 10. "_Who_ is applied to persons, or things personified."--_Bullions._

"With listless eyes the dotard views the store, He views, and wonders that they please no more."--_Johnson_.

EXCEPTION II.--TWO TERMS CONTRASTED.

When two connected words or phrases are contrasted, or emphatically distinguished, the comma is inserted; as, "The vain are easily obliged, and easily disobliged."--_Kames_.

"Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature's hand."--_Beattie_.

"'Tis certain he could write, and cipher too."--_Goldsmith_.

EXCEPTION III.--ALTERNATIVE OF WORDS.

When there is merely an alternative of names, or an explanatory change of terms, the comma is usually inserted; as, "We saw a large opening, or inlet."--_W. Allen_. "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles?"--_Cor._, ix, 5.

EXCEPTION IV.--CONJUNCTION UNDERSTOOD.

When the conjunction is understood, the comma is inserted; and, if two separated words or terms refer alike to a third term, the second requires a second comma: as, "Reason, virtue, answer one great aim."--_L. Murray, Gram._, p. 269.

"To him the church, the realm, their pow'rs consign."--_Johnson_.

"She thought the isle that gave her birth.

The sweetest, wildest land on earth."--_Hogg_.

RULE V.--WORDS IN PAIRS.

When successive words are joined in pairs by conjunctions, they should be separated in pairs by the comma; as, "Interest and ambition, honour and shame, friendship and enmity, grat.i.tude and revenge, are the prime movers in public transactions."--_W. Allen_. "But, whether ingenious or dull, learned or ignorant, clownish or polite, every innocent man, without exception, has as good a right to liberty as to life."--_Beattie's Moral Science_, p. 313.

"Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate, O'erspread with snares the crowded maze of fate."--_Dr. Johnson_.

RULE VI.--WORDS PUT ABSOLUTE.

Nouns or p.r.o.nouns put absolute, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma; as, "The prince, _his father being dead_, succeeded."--"_This done_, we parted."--"_Zaccheus_, make haste and come down."--"_His proctorship in Sicily_, what did it produce?"--_Cicero_.

"Wing'd with his fears, on foot he strove to fly, _His steeds too distant_, and _the foe too nigh_"

--_Pope, Iliad_, xi, 440.

RULE VII.--WORDS IN APPOSITION.

Words in apposition, (especially if they have adjuncts,) are generally set off by the comma; as, "He that now calls upon thee, is Theodore, _the hermit of Teneriffe_."--_Johnson_. "LOWTH, _Dr. Robert, bishop of London_, born in 1710, died in 1787."--_Biog. Dict._ "HOME, _Henry, lord Kames_."--_Ib._

"What next I bring shall please thee, be a.s.sur'd, Thy _likeness_, thy fit _help_, thy other _self_, Thy _wish_ exactly to thy heart's desire."--_Milton, P. L._, viii, 450.

"And he, their prince, shall rank among my peers."--_Byron_.

EXCEPTION I.--COMPLEX NAMES.

When several words, in their common order, are used as one compound name, the comma is not inserted; as, "Dr. Samuel Johnson,"--"Publius Gavius Cosa.n.u.s."

EXCEPTION II.--CLOSE APPOSITION.

When a common and a proper name are closely united, the comma is not inserted; as, "The brook Kidron,"--"The river Don,"--"The empress Catharine,"--"Paul the Apostle."

EXCEPTION III.--p.r.o.nOUN WITHOUT PAUSE.

When a p.r.o.noun is added to an other word merely for emphasis and distinction, the comma is not inserted; as, "Ye men of Athens,"--"I myself,"--"Thou flaming minister,"--"You princes."

EXCEPTION IV.--NAMES ACQUIRED.

When a name acquired by some action or relation, is put in apposition with a preceding noun or p.r.o.noun, the comma is not inserted; as, "I made the _ground_ my _bed_;"--"To make _him king_;"--"_Whom_ they revered as _G.o.d_;"--"With _modesty_ thy _guide_."--_Pope._

RULE VIII.--ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives, when something depends on them, or when they have the import of a dependent clause, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma; as,

1. ----------------------------"Among the roots Of hazel, _pendent o'er the plaintive stream_, They frame the first foundation of their domes."--_Thomson_.

2. -------------------------"Up springs the lark, _Shrill-voic'd_ and _loud_, the messenger of morn."--_Id._

EXCEPTION.--ADJECTIVES RESTRICTIVE.

When an adjective immediately follows its noun, and is taken in a restrictive sense, the comma should not be used before it; as,

----"And on the coast _averse_ From entrance or cherubic watch."--_Milton, P. L._, B. ix, l. 68.

RULE IX.--FINITE VERBS.