from the doctrine of the ancients, who consider it as an assemblage of members, and not of words only; but as such a reader will know the difficulty of giving a precise idea of a period, according to the opinion of the ancients, and what diversity and uncertainty there is about it among the moderns; he will the more easily excuse my hazarding a definition of my own. My principal object has been, to give such a definition as would be clear, precise and useful: such a one as would best answer the purposes of pronunciation, by exactly drawing the line between the connection and disjunctions of words, without making use of such indefinite terms as the more or less intimate connection of the parts, or the concurrence of the parts to the plenitude of a total sense.

Sentences thus defined and distinguished into their several kinds, we shall be better enabled to give such rules for dividing them by pauses, as will reduce punctuation to some rational and steady principles. Previously, however, to these rules, it will be necessary to observe, that as the times of the pai ses are exceedingly indefinite, the fewer distinctions we make between them, the less we shall embarrass the reader: the common estimate of the times of the comma, the semicolon, the colon, and the period, in the geometrical proportions of 1, 2, 4, 8, pleases us, from its analogy with the times of the semibrief, minim, crotchet, and quaver in musick; but every one will confess at first sight, that as these distinctions in reading are arbitrary, they are useless; every one feels a difference between a greater and a smaller pause, but few can conceive degrees of these; I shall beg leave, therefore, to reduce the number of pauses to three; namely, the smaller pause, answering to the comma; the greater pause answering to the semicolon and colon; and the greatest pause answering to the period. The ancients knew nothing of the semicolon: and if we consider practice and real utility,

I believe it will be found, that the three distinctions of the ancients answer every useful purpose in writing and reading.

The smaller pause, the greater pause, and the greatest pause, are the distinctions, therefore, I shall beg leave to adopt in the rules to be given for dividing a sentence: and as the division of a sentence depends necessarily on its structure, and the greater or less connection of its parts, it will be proper to begin with the direct period; that is, where no sense is formed till the sentence is concluded.

Rule I. Every direct period consists of two principal constructive parts, between which parts the greater pause must be inserted; when these parts commence with conjunctions that correspond with each other, they are sufficiently distinguishable; as in the following sentence :

As we cannot discern the shadow moving along the dialplate, so the advances we make in knowledge are only perceived by the distance gone over.

Here we may observe, that the first constructive part begins with as, and the second with so; the expectation is excited by the first, and answered by the latter: at that point, therefore, where the expectation begins to be answered, and the sense begins to form, the principal pause is to be used; and, by these means, the two contrasted and correspondent parts are distinctly viewed by the mind.

A period may be direct, and its parts as necessarily connected, where only the first conjunction is expressed.

EXAMPLE.

As in my speculations I have endeavoured to extinguish passion and prejudice, I am still desirous of doing some good in this particular. Spectator.

Here the word so is understood before I am, and the long pause as much required as if so had been expressed; since it is here the sentence naturally divides into two correspondent and dependent parts.

That point, therefore, where the expectation begins to be answered, or where one part of the sentence begins to modify the other, is the point which we must be the most careful to mark; as it is here the sentence naturally divides into its principal constructive parts.

Rule II. Every inverted period consists of two principal constructive parts, between which parts the greater pause must be inserted; these parts divide at that point, where the latter part of the sentence begins to modify the former; in periods of this kind, the latter conjunction only is expressed, as in the example: 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 invert this period, we shall find it susceptible of the two correspondent conjunctions though and yet; as, Though utterly unacquainted with the rules of grammar or logick, as delivered in books and systems, yet every man who speaks and reasons is a grammarian and logician. This inversion of the order of a sentence, is, perhaps, the best criterion of the connection of its parts; and proves that the former, though forming complete sense by itself, is modified by the latter. Thus in the phrases, Christ died for him, because he died for all-Many things are believed, though they exceed the capacity of our wits. Hooker.

In these phrases, if we do but transpose the noun and pronoun, and invert the order, the sentences will be perfectly the same in sense, and the connection will be more apparent; as, Because Christ died for all, he died for him-Though many things exceed the capacity of our wits, they are believed.

Rule III. Every loose sentence must consist of a period, either direct or inverted, and an additional member which does not modify it; and, consequently, this species of sentence requires a pause between the principal constructive parts of the period, and between the period and the additional member.

EXAMPLE.

Persons of good taste expect to be pleased, at the same time they are informed; and think that the best sense always deserves the best language.

In this sentence an inverted period is constructed at the word informed; which requires a pause at pleased, because here the former part of the sentence is modified by the latter; and a pause is required at informed, because here another member commences. Let us take another example:

The soul, considered abstractedly from its passions, is of a remiss and sedentary nature; slow in its resolves, and languishing in its executions. Spectator, No. 255.

Here a direct period is formed at nature; the principal constructive parts of this period separate at passions; and here must be the larger pause: the succeeding members are only additional, and require a larger pause between them and the period they belong to, and a smaller pause between each other at resolves.

Having thus given an idea of the principal pause in a sentence, it will be necessary to say something of the subordinate pauses, which may all be comprehended under what is called the short pause.

And, first it may be observed, that by the long pause, is not meant a pause of any determinate length, but the longest pause in the sentence. Thus the pause between the nominative and the verb in the following sentence:

The great and invincible Alexander, wept for the fate of Darius.

The pause here, I say, may be called the long pause, though not half so long as the pause between the two principal constructive parts in the following sen

tence :

If impudence prevailed as much in the forum and the courts of justice, as insolence does in the country and places of less resort; Aulus Cæcina would submit as much to the impudence of Sextus Æbutius in this cause, as he did before to his insolence when assaulted by him.

Here the pause between the words resort, and Aulus Cacina, may be called the long pause, not so much from its duration, as from its being the principal pause in the sentence: the long pause, therefore, must always be understood relatively to the smaller pauses and it may pass for a good general rule, that the principal pause is longer, or shorter, according to the simplicity or complexity of the sentence: thus, in the three following sentences, we find the two principal constructive parts separated by a pause in exact proportion to the simplicity or complexity of the members:

EXAMPLES.

As we cannot discern the shadow moving along the dialplate, so the advances we make in knowledge are only perceivable by the distance gone over.

As we perceive the shadow to have moved, but did not perceive it moving; so our advances in learning, consisting of insensible steps, are only perceivable by the distance.

As we perceive the shadow to have moved along the dial, but did not perceive it moving; and it appears the grass has grown, though nobody ever saw it grow: so the advances we make in knowledge, as they make such minute steps, are only perceivable by the distance.