Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/784

 #"Ah! what avails * * * * * * * * * All that art, fortune, enterprise, can bring, If envy, scorn, remorse, or pride, the bosom wring?"&mdash;Id.. Thou, stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless."&mdash;Shak. 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."&mdash;Milton.
 * 1) "Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible;
 * 1) "She plans, provides, expatiates, triumphs there."&mdash;Young.
 * 2) &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;"So eagerly the Fiend

RULE IV.&mdash;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"&mdash;Spectator, No. 2.


 * "Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul."&mdash;Goldsmith.

EXCEPTION I.&mdash;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."&mdash;Spectator, No. 10. "Who is applied to persons, or things personified."&mdash;Bullions. "With listless eyes the dotard views the store,   He views, and wonders that they please no more."&mdash;Johnson.

EXCEPTION II.&mdash;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."&mdash;Kames.


 * "Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature's hand."&mdash;Beattie.
 * "'Tis certain he could write, and cipher too."&mdash;Goldsmith.

EXCEPTION III.&mdash;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."&mdash;W. Allen. "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles?"&mdash;Cor., ix, 5.

EXCEPTION IV.&mdash;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."&mdash;L. Murray, Gram., p. 269.


 * "To him the church, the realm, their pow'rs consign."&mdash;Johnson.

"She thought the isle that gave her birth.   The sweetest, wildest land on earth."&mdash;Hogg.

RULE V.&mdash;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, gratitude and revenge, are the prime movers in public transactions."&mdash;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."&mdash;Beattie's Moral Science, p. 313. "Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate,   O'erspread with snares the crowded maze of fate."&mdash;Dr. Johnson.

RULE VI.&mdash;WORDS PUT ABSOLUTE.
Nouns or pronouns put absolute, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma; as, "The prince, his father being dead, succeeded."&mdash;"This done, we parted."&mdash;"Zaccheus, make haste and come down."&mdash;"His proctorship in Sicily, what did it produce?"&mdash;Cicero. "Wing'd with his fears, on foot he strove to fly,   His steeds too distant, and the foe too nigh" &mdash;Pope, Iliad, xi, 440.