We have known more than forty special directions {p70} to be sent to a printing-office with the manuscript copy of one book. An author may fancy that numerous minute rulings will ensure uniformity and beauty to his book; but the chances of discrepancy and mistake are increased in direct ratio to the number of such of his rulings as run counter to the office style. His “more requires less,” but produces “more.”
CHAPTER V. PUNCTUATION.
Printers and proof-readers are to take for granted, that, in every work which falls under their supervision, the proper agreement between thought and expression has been effected by the author. He alone has the right to change the words and their collocation; and, if fairly punctuated, the manuscript should be closely followed, word for word, and point for point.
Every person who writes for the press should punctuate his work presentably; but—since the majority of writers are inattentive to punctuation—custom and convenience, if not necessity, have thrown upon the compositor and proof-reader the task of inserting in their proper places the grammatical points, and such other points and marks as shall assist a reader in obtaining a ready apprehension of the author’s meaning. These are the period (.), the colon (:), the semicolon (;), the comma (,), the note of interrogation (?), the note of exclamation (!), the parenthesis ( ), and the dash (—).
Besides these principal characters, there are other marks and signs used in writing and printing,—the hyphen (‐), the apostrophe (’), and others; all which may be found in the concluding division of {p72} this chapter, numbered VIII., and should be referred to as occasion may require.
Books which treat of English grammar speak of four of the points in common use—to wit, the period, the colon, the semicolon, and the comma—as “grammatical” points; while the dash, the note of interrogation, the note of exclamation, and the parenthesis are classified as “rhetorical,”—being used to indicate various effects produced in conversation by changes in the tone of the voice. But as “English grammar is the art of speaking and writing [or printing] the English language with propriety,” and as all points and marks in the printer’s case are necessary to printing with propriety, it is not essential in this work to make the distinctions alluded to above. Nor shall we treat at length, if at all, of technical marks not in common use; as, for instance, signs used in algebra and chemistry, and in various arts and sciences. These can be referred to, should occasion require, in handbooks, and in Webster’s Dictionary, pp. 1864–68, or in Worcester’s, pp. 1773–75.
Our school-books used to tell us, that at the period we should stop long enough to count four; at the colon, three; at the semicolon, two; at the comma, one. But pauses vary in length, as readers and speakers wish to affect or impress their hearers: hence reporters of speeches and orations sometimes—finding ordinary points and marks insufficient—insert, in brackets, some comment indicating that there was a pause made which outreached the time {p73} allowed for an ordinary period. We listened in April, 1861, to a speech by Wendell Phillips, in which, at the close of one sentence, the orator paused long enough to count ten or twelve; the reporters at that place inserted in brackets the words “[An impressive pause].”[7] To denote by distinctive characters every possible length of pause would require an infinitude of signs, types, and cases. We must therefore do the best we can with the few points now in use, leaving much to the taste of authors, printers, and readers. Still, the immense advantage modern students have over those of ancient times is made obvious by a comparison of antique and modern writings,—for punctuation is comparatively a modern affair, whose origin and changes it will be both useful and interesting to trace,—and in doing this, we shall endeavor to avoid the charge of prolixity, by condensing into brief space information gained from a variety of sources.
[7] “There is only one thing those cannon shot in the harbor of Charleston settle,—that there never can be a compromise. . . . During these long and weary weeks we have waited to hear the Northern conscience assert its purpose. It comes at last. [An impressive pause.] Massachusetts blood has consecrated the pavements of Baltimore, and those stones are now too sacred to be trodden by slaves.”
The most ancient Greek manuscript known is among the papyri of the Louvre. It is a work on astronomy, and is indorsed with deeds of 165 and 164 B.C. This has “a certain sort of separation of words.” In a copy of Homer, written B.C., a wedge-shaped sign > is inserted “between the beginnings of {p74} lines” to mark a new passage. But even these marks were soon lost sight of; subsequent Greek and Latin writing runs on continuously without distinction of words. In the fifth century of our era, the fourth verse of the Second Epistle of John was thus written:
τεκνωνσουπεριπατουν