In manuscript the dash occurs more frequently than any other mark of punctuation, many writers {p90} using it as a substitute for every other point. This habit very much retards the compositor in his task; for, as we have already intimated, he feels obliged to study the sense of his copy, and to waste his valuable time in considering how he shall best supply those aids to meaning which the author has rejected, and without which any work would be wholly unpresentable.
That the author of the paragraph quoted below pointed it with perfect accuracy before sending it to press, does not admit of a doubt. For the nonce, however, we will, with his leave, punctuate the passage in the manner in which the compositor frequently finds passages pointed on his “takes”; thus:
“It has been said—and—no doubt—truthfully—that the smartest boys do not go to college. Yet—it is evident—to every one competent to judge—that the ablest men have been at college.”
With so many dashes before him, it would not be strange if the compositor were to retain some of them; and the proof might, perhaps, appear as follows:
“It has been said—and no doubt truthfully—that the smartest boys do not go to college. Yet it is evident to every one competent to judge, that the ablest men have been at college.”
This is much improved; and, if we substitute commas for the dashes in the first sentence, the punctuation may be considered unobjectionable.
Beginners at the “case” are often puzzled in regard to the insertion of commas before the dashes which {p91} inclose a parenthetic clause. To decide this point, it is enough to notice whether or not a comma would be used, were the parenthetic clause omitted. This, we think, will be readily understood by reference to the following examples:
“It was necessary not only that Christianity should assume a standard absolutely perfect, but that it should apply a perfect law to those complex and infinitely diversified cases which arise when law is violated.”
Now, if a parenthetic clause is inserted before the word “but,” the comma should be retained, and another placed at the end of the inserted clause; thus:
“It was necessary, not only that Christianity should assume a standard absolutely perfect,—which, however far from anything that man has ever done, would be comparatively easy,—but that it should apply a perfect law,” etc.