Participles, when something depends on them, when they have the import of a dependent clause, or when they relate to something understood, should, with their adjuncts, he set off by the comma; as, 1. "Law is a rule of civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong."—BLACKSTONE: Beattie's Moral Science, p. 346.
2. "Young Edwin, lighted by the evening star, Lingering and list'ning wander'd down the vale."—Beattie.
3. "United, we stand; divided, we fall."—Motto.
4. "Properly speaking, there is no such thing as chance."
EXCEPTION.—PARTICIPLES RESTRICTIVE.
When a participle immediately follows its noun, and is taken in a restrictive sense, the comma should not be used before it; as,
"A man renown'd for repartee,
Will seldom scruple to make free
With friendship's finest feeling."—Cowper.
RULE XII.—ADVERBS. Adverbs, when they break the connexion of a simple sentence, or when they have not a close dependence on some particular word in the context, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma; as, "We must not, however, confound this gentleness with the artificial courtesy of the world."—"Besides, the mind must be employed."—Gilpin. "Most unquestionably, no fraud was equal to all this."—Lyttelton. "But, unfortunately for us, the tide was ebbing already."
"When buttress and buttress, alternately,
Seem framed of ebon and ivory."—Scott's Lay, p. 33.