Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/272

258 of Zola's famous j'accuse, not vicarious, and on an adequate occasion), or else inserted an and before the last repetition.

Mr. Loomis denies all three categorically. He denies that the Asphalt Company paid him £2,000 or any other sum; denies that he purchased a clam against the Venezuelan Government and then used his influence when Minister at Caracas to collect the claim; denies that he agreed with Mr. Meyers or anybody else to use his influence for money.–Times.

10. The exclamation mark when there is no exclamation.

We must differ altogether from Beadnell's rule that 'This point is used to denote any sudden emotion of the mind, whether of joy, grief, surprise, fear, or any other sensation'—at least as it is exemplified in his first instance, given above. The exclamation mark after friend is justifiable, not the other. The stop should be used, with one exception, only after real exclamations. Real exclamations include (1) the words recognized as interjections, as alas, (2) fragmentary expressions that are not complete sentences, as My friend in the example, and (3) complete statements that contain an exclamatory word, as:

The exception mentioned above is this: when the writer wishes to express his own incredulity or other feeling about what is not his own statement, but practically a quotation from some one else, he is at liberty to do it with a mark of exclamation ; in the following example, the epitaph-writer expresses either his wonder or his incredulity about what Fame says.

Entomb'd within this vault a lawyer lies Who, Fame assureth us, was just and wise!–B.

The exclamation mark is a neat and concise sneer at the legal profession.

Outside these narrow limits the exclamation mark must not be used. We shall quote a very instructive saying of Landor's: 'I read warily; and whenever I find the writings