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EXAMPLES:

His aim was, to foster the interests of the natives.

To continue, I will now show the consequence of my argument.

(11) It is used also to set off an adverb or adverbial phrases when they cause a break in the construction of a simple sentence.

EXAMPLES:

This curiosity of theirs, however, was attend-
ed with very serious effects.

And yet I knew that every wrong,
However old, however strong,

But waited God's avenging hour.

(12) It is used to set off prepositional phrases when they interrupt the sequence of a simple sentence, or when they are separated from words on which they are dependent.

EXAMPLES:

American aristocracy is, to some extent, a matter of wealth.

By study, we may add to our store of knowledge that acquired by our ancestors.

(13) It is used to set off a conjunction when it is divided from the main clause dependent on it or when it introduces an example.

EXAMPLE: The collision was inevitable, but, by timely assistance, the crew was saved.

(14) It is used occasionally to set off interjections.

EXAMPLE:

Yet then from all my grief, O Lord,

Thy mercy set me free.

(15) It is used to set off a word which it is desired to emphasize.

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The semicolon is used to indicate a separation in the relations of the thought in a compound sentence a degree greater than that expressed by the comma.

(1) It is used to separate different statements; that is, the different clauses of a compound sentence which are already separated by commas.

EXAMPLE:

We may live without poetry, music, and art;
We may live without conscience, and live
without heart;

We may live without friends; we may live
without books;

But civilized man can not live without cooks.

(2) It is used to separate two or more simple members of a sentence when these require a pause greater than that which a comma would mark.

EXAMPLE: Who lives to nature rarely can be poor; who lives to fancy never can be rich.

(3) It is used before "as" when employed as an introductory to an example.

EXAMPLE: That which is not permitted or allowed; as, the illicit sale of intoxicants.

3. THE COLON (:)

The colon is used as a sign of apposition or equality to connect one clause with another that explains it, as in introducing a list, a quotation, an enumeration, or a catalog; or to join clauses that are grammatically complete yet closely connected in sense; or to mark any discontinuity in sense or grammatical construction greater than that which is indicated by a semicolon, but not sufficient to require a period or a dash.

(1) It is used to separate one complete clause from another.

EXAMPLES:

The power to bind and loose to Truth is
given:

The mouth that speaks it is the mouth of
Heaven.

Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds
all notions of time: effaces all memory of a be-
ginning, all fear of an end.

(2) It is used in sentences in which the semi

colon has been introduced when a greater pause is required than can be indicated by a semicolon.

EXAMPLE: It surely was not obscurity; it was

not weakness: it was a want of that sensitive
taste which ought to breathe its delicate sense
of fitness into the plainest phraseology.

(3) It is used to introduce a formal quotation.

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EXAMPLE: A writer in the Westminster Review discourses in this fashion: Another curious observation upon philosophic activity is that the coordination of all functions which constitute the whole intellectual energy of philosophic minds is preserved in its plenitude for only a short period of their whole duration of life."'

4. THE PERIOD (.)

(1) The period or full stop is used after every complete declarative statement.

EXAMPLE: Consider the end.

(2) After title-headings and side-heads. (3) After most abbreviations.

EXAMPLES:

A. M. for ante meridian; LL. D. for Doctor of Laws; e.g. for exempli gratia (for the sake of example).

(4) After Roman numerals, except when they are used to number pages.

1 Phelps, English Style in Public Discourse, p. 133.

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The dash is used to mark (1) a change of thought or construction, or (2) an emphatic or unexpected pause.

EXAMPLES:

(1) He may live without books-what is knowl-
edge but grieving?

He may live without hope-what is hope
but deceiving?

(2) What say ye? Speak now-now or never.

6. THE INTERROGATION-POINT (?)

The note of interrogation or eroteme is used at the end of a sentence to designate (1) a single question or (2) more, and (3) is sometimes written in parentheses to express a doubt or challenge the accuracy of a statement.

EXAMPLES:

(1) Truths would you teach, or save a sinking
land?

(2) Father of Light! Great God of Heaven!
Hear'st Thou the accents of despair?
Can guilt like man's be e'er forgiven?

Can vice atone for crimes by prayer?
(3) Peru. Manco Capac, with his wife, and
sister Mama Ocello, arrives from China (?), and
claims to have been sent by the Deity to reclaim
the tribes from savage life.

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